Friday, Aug. 18, 2000 | 10:50 a.m.
In its bid to offer something no other shopping mall in Las Vegas has, the developer of Desert Passage took the reality route.
"This place has 700 different textures," said Paul Beirnes, the director of marketing for the 500,000-square-foot retail outlet opened by TrizecHahn Development Corp. Thursday night.
"We wanted to present authenticity and we've paid a lot of attention to detail," he said. "When people come in the door, we really want them to feel like they're on a journey."
Desert Passage's journey is a trek to the historic desert trade route from Marrakech and Tangier to Bombay. Moorish archways adorn the mile-long circle of 130 shops and 14 restaurants. Patterned iron grills are used instead of the traditional mall-front glass doors.
"We didn't want to do an 'Arabian Nights' theme for the shopping area," said Paul Jacob, senior vice president of RTKL Associates Inc., Los Angeles, the architect and designer of the project. "The Aladdin (hotel-casino) was developing more of a fantasy theme.
"We wanted to create imagery of real places. We wanted to put people on a journey from Gibraltar to India."
A Santa Fe, N.M., company, Seret & Sons, was contracted to import antiques and artifacts from India, the Middle East and Northern Africa to decorate the property. Even the lighting fixtures came right off the streets of Fez, Morocco, Beirnes said.
Desert Passage is close to the same size as its two main rivals on the Strip. The Forum Shops at Caesars, which opened in 1992, has an estimated 500,000 square feet of retail space with 107 stores open. That mall is eyeing an expansion, proposed for completion in 2002, that would add about 250,000 square feet.
The Canal Shoppes at the Venetian hotel-casino opened in May 1999 with about 500,000 square feet and about 75 stores and restaurants.
While TrizecHahn invested an estimated $300 million to make Desert Passage look old and mysterious, a $200,000 computer system may have an even greater impact on the success of stores that are estimated to be paying up to $180 a square foot per year to be there. That's comparable to what retailers pay at the Forum Shops at Caesars and the Canal Shoppes at the Venetian.
Inside the textured walls, tucked beside the glazed mosaic tiles, is an elaborate laser-guided foot traffic tracking system.
Beirnes said the system will enable mall management to determine the flow of people throughout the mall.
Coupled with the daily tracking of receipt totals by each store, managers will be able to monitor what's hot and what's not at the mall.
The computer system will be able to determine where most people come in, where they go once they're inside and where they leave. Since another component of the Desert Passage experience is wandering entertainers, managers will be able to determine how the placement and scheduling of performers affects traffic and sales.
"Say, for example, we find that a particular type of entertainer is extremely popular, like the acrobats," Beirnes said. "Maybe we'll schedule them for additional performances in parts of the mall where it may be a little slow.
"On the other hand, maybe a certain type of performer is blocking the entrance of a particular store. Because we are monitoring sales figures, we can adjust as we need to to make sure our tenants get maximum exposure."
Beirnes said the sales statistics won't be disclosed to competitors or the public, but will be used to monitor where entertainers can help drive traffic and sales.
And traffic and sales are expected to be good. A retail expert says the attention to detail as well as the access and location will make Desert Passage a winner.
"I think it's going to be sensational," said George Connor, who monitors Strip retail for the Las Vegas office of Colliers International.
"It's unlike any other shopping center we have here," Connor said. "It will challenge all your senses. The temperatures will be lower in different zones. They'll have a rainstorm with thunder and lightning in the harbor area, so it will actually be a few degrees cooler and the humidity will be higher due to the wind and fog special effects.
"They'll have piped-in fragrances near the health and beauty stores. Every time you go through the place you could have a different experience."
The sensory effects and the tracking system aren't the only high-tech features in the mall. Beirnes said the building has been prewired with cable that will enable broadcasters easy plug-in access for television remotes. Plans already are being made for New Year's Eve broadcasts from the mall.
Connor said Desert Passage's location is perfect, midway between the biggest areas of growth on the Strip, and it will draw tourists from the entire south Strip resort corridor.
Connor said he expects Desert Passage to do well because because it has better access from the Strip than any other retail center. It has about 800 linear feet of frontage on Las Vegas Boulevard.
Beirnes said because an average of 75,000 to 80,000 pedestrians already walk along that part of the Strip every day, it's likely Desert Passage will draw more than 50,000 people inside daily.
Beirnes also said the mall will emphasize the easy access to shopping through a 60,000-car parking garage -- as big as the one at McCarran International Airport -- to local residents.
"And, they don't try to force the casino on you," Connor said. "Even in the Forum Shops, they have slot machines in the mall. Here, you won't have to go through the casino to get to the shopping and I think the locals will take notice of that. The access is really great for both pedestrians and locals in cars because the road system is under the property."
Beirnes said he anticipates a mix of about 75 percent tourists and 25 percent locals, with the average visit lasting about four hours. The mall's client list is an eclectic mix, ranging from casual (Cutter & Buck, Honolua Surf Co.) to designer fashions (Jhane Barnes, Casablanca Clothiers). With that mix, the mall expects to draw from a broad economic range of customers.
Beirnes said that not every retailer bought into the Desert Passage concept at first, especially since TrizecHahn was asking tenants to substitute traditional store fronts with looks that fit the theme.
"Many of these places have successful formulas in place," Beirnes said. "Some of them didn't want to try it."
But Thursday night, the center was 95 percent leased and 104 of the properties -- about 75 percent of them -- had their doors open.
Desert Passage's storefronts will get maximum exposure because the mall, as an access to the Aladdin property and the 7,000-seat Theatre for the Performing Arts, will be accessible 24 hours, though the stores will maintain hours of 10 a.m. to midnight.
There are 52 stores and restaurants making their Las Vegas debut.
Roberto Ruggeri, founder and president of the Italian Restaurant Group, the New York-based parent company of Bice, one of the new restaurant arrivals to the city, is using a concept that works for the Forum Shops' Spago -- casual dining in a patio setting with formal dining inside the restaurant.
Ruggeri, who says his restaurant has Italian roots with the first Bice opening in Milan in 1926, will use flavors garnered from 20 properties he has worldwide. He's counting on his location across from the 155-foot freighter in the harbor area to generate business.
"TrizecHahn has been truly amazing in putting this (Desert Passage) together," Ruggeri said. "They've created an environment that is unique and we think we fit right in."
Also new to Las Vegas is Build A Bear Workshop, "bearquartered" in St. Louis.
Build a Bear Workshop has onsite machines that enable shoppers to buy the materials to create a teddy bear. The stuffed animal is manufactured on site and the new owner gets a birth certificate. Bears are registered in a data base -- which was another clue that a local store would be popular, since many previous buyers were found to be from the Las Vegas area.
"We are a store that caters to families and children and people who love stuffed animals," said Maxine Clark, chief executive officer of the company. "As we saw with the Beanie Baby craze, millions of people are into stuffed animals."
Clark thinks her store will be successful because another tourist-centered Build A Bear in Myrtle Beach, S.C., draws big crowds.
"Stuffed animals are very popular souvenirs," Clark said.
Bear models at the local store will have Las Vegas and Desert Passage themes.
"We'll have a genie-looking bear, we'll have a casino bear, a showgirl bear and, because so many people get married in Las Vegas, we'll have bride-and-groom bears," Clark said. "You'll also be able to stuff a white tiger in our store, and I know they're popular here."
But if Desert Passage is as successful as the retailers and the owners expect, someone has to give up market share. Representatives of other Las Vegas malls have said they expect the increased visitor volume resulting from more hotel rooms and airline flights to the city will increase the number of visits to their own properties.
"It will hurt some more than others," said Colliers International's Connor. "The Forum Shops have some great retail, but they don't have the nightclub and restaurant mix Desert Passage has. And none of them have the access or Strip exposure Desert Passage has."
Forum Shops marketing director Maureen Crampton says the two centers are different enough that each will be an attraction worthy of the public's attention. The new retailers opening their first stores will offer something new for the city.
"We're looking at Desert Passage as an enhancement to the community," she said. "They're the focal point of what's happening, not just Desert Passage, but the Aladdin as well. They're new properties and that's big news for Las Vegas. We congratulate them."
For TrizecHahn, which owns and operates the Fashion Outlet of Las Vegas in Primm, built in 1998, and which partnered in 1981 with the Howard Hughes Corp. to build the Fashion Show mall, Desert Passage is one of the company's most ambitious "shoppertainment" projects ever.
TrizecHahn Development Corp., headquartered in Los Angeles and San Diego, is the retail and entertainment development division of Toronto-based TrizecHahn Corp.
The Canadian corporation has an $8 billion (U.S.) asset base with retail and office properties in New York, Washington, Chicago, Houston and Dallas. It has more than 2,300 employees and owns the CN Tower in Toronto and the Sears Tower in Chicago.
In the TrizecHahn's second quarter, ending June 30, the company reported net income of $16.4 million, 11 cents a share, on revenues of $303.3 million, compared with net income of $37.9 million, 23 cents a share, on revenues of $293.2 million the same quarter a year ago. All figures are in U.S. dollars.
Right on the heels of Desert Passage's opening, the company will open in Los Angeles Hollywood & Highland, which at the end of July was 60 percent leased, and will have a theater component that will be the new home of the annual Academy Awards show.
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