Sears expanding with two Vegas-area stores

Sears, Roebuck and Co. is building its third full-line Sears department store in the Las Vegas area, as well as a Great Indoors home store.

The Great Indoors, Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based Sears' home decorating and remodeling division, plans to open its first store in Las Vegas in fall 2002.

The home decorator has opened 13 stores nationwide since 1998 and plans to hire about 300 people at the 133,000 square-foot Las Vegas store under construction at 700 South Rampart Blvd.

Kathleen Connolly, Great Indoors' spokeswoman, said: "We've gone with the Great Indoors concept because it helps us impact customers we may not have been impacting through the Sears brand. Sears has a home fashions department and custom decorating area but it doesn't focus on full home decor."

"Post Sept. 11's events, people are now spending more time at home, so there are lots more opportunities for home decorating," she said. "Even if they have a major renovation project and decide not to do that now, they may choose to redecorate their homes."

Sears already has full-line stores at the Boulevard and Meadows malls in Las Vegas.

Its new 121,310-square-foot full-line department store is in fast-growing Henderson and will be the first in that city. It will be the largest anchor at Warm Springs Promenade, a 35-acre Henderson retail "power center" that's under construction on Warm Springs Road between Julia and Marks Streets.

David Grant, real estate brokerage Colliers International's senior sales associate, said Sears is building its first standalone store instead of opening within the nearby Galleria at Sunset mall because Galleria already has four major anchors including Dillard's, JC Penney, Mervyn's and Robinson's-May.

Melissa Winchester, Sears' spokeswoman, said Sears has no immediate plans to build any other full-line stores in the Las Vegas area.

"Sears is building a store in Henderson because there's a good customer base there," she said. "Also we've never had any stores in Henderson."

Sears, which said the Henderson store is scheduled to open in February 2002, said it abandoned plans to build a HomeLife Furniture store at the power center following HomeLife's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing on July 16.

Sears started HomeLife in 1989 as a generally free-standing furniture store, but later sold it after it became a money loser. The chain was sold to Citicorp Venture Capital Ltd., a private investment firm in 1998, though Sears maintained a 19 percent interest in the furniture stores and housed 14 HomeLifes inside its department stores. Sears said the 14 HomeLifes are now closed.

HomeLife, which is closing its one standalone store at 300 South Martin Luther King Drive in Las Vegas amid a retail shakeout that has seen falling profits and the demise of big-name competitors like Montgomery Ward, had earlier planned to build a 41,000-square-foot store on the east end of the Henderson property alongside Marks Street.

Peter Nero, HomeLife's former vice president of real estate who is now acting on behalf of the company in its bankruptcy proceedings, said: "There had a deal in progress in Henderson but that is no longer going forward. HomeLife is liquidating all of its assets. All leases have been rejected, new deals terminated. Sears is still building in that area but HomeLife isn't."

Grant said the city of Henderson has approved up to 360,000 square feet of retail development on the 35-acre site.

He said Colliers is now negotiating with several co-anchors to occupy up to 239,000 square feet of retail space including the former HomeLife site.

"In addition to Sears, there will be space for up to four mini anchors ranging in size from 21,000-41,000 square feet. When completed, the site will be a power center comprising large box retailers and mini anchors located next to each other," he said.

Grant said at least one mini anchor, Furniture Expo of Las Vegas, has signed a lease and is expected to occupy a 20,000 square foot space at the center.

"There'll also be about 26 acres of parking space and landscaping, space for four free-standing tenants including fast-food restaurants and banks and three multi-tenants in the middle of the parking lot," he said.

archive