Who’s your shopper? Westcor crafts district for Boulder base

BOULDER – Twenty Ninth Street should have something for everyone, say its developers.

They admit, however, that the “everyone” most of the retail district’s tenants are targeting is what every shopping center targets – 18- to 55-year-old women.

“In any new shopping center that has a fashion component there’s going to be a focus on that woman shopper,´ said Bob Williams, senior vice president of development leasing for Twenty Ninth Street developer Westcor Corp. in Phoenix, a subsidiary of The Macerich Co. based in California that owns some of the district’s land and manages the property.

Women are the primary shoppers everywhere but the basic grocery-and-drugstore strip mall, Williams said.
Some Twenty Ninth Street tenants – Apple Computer, makeup stores M.A.C. and Sephora, athletic wear seller lucy, for example – might attract girls as young as 15.

But Williams said the “junior shopper” is drawn more to FlatIron Crossing, Macerich’s mall in Broomfield. “Our focus (for Twenty Ninth Street) was a little more than that: the younger mom, the 20-something, the more mature, professional woman.”

Westcor endeavored to make Twenty Ninth Street a microcosm of what makes Boulder, Boulder.
“Boulder has a highly educated community with higher household incomes than a lot of communities,” Williams said. “They like the out-of-doors. They value diversity. For some things they want a good price but aren’t afraid to spend a lot of money on something of quality.”

“Our intention was to craft a mix of merchandise that would appeal to a Boulder resident and guest several times a week,´ said Lain Adams, Twenty Ninth Street’s senior property manager.

That explains the neighborhood approach, he said – the southwest is anchored by Wild Oats and Staples, the southeast is home-improvement district with Home Depot, the central area is the restaurant district.

“When we were merchandising the center it was important that we craft a mix that would bring Boulder residents many times a week,” Adams said. “Buy groceries, have coffee, get home-improvement supplies, go to Z Gallerie for furniture, see a movie and have dinner or shop stores that in many cases are new to the state like Francesca’s Collection and The Territory Ahead.

“We’ve been here for a long time as Crossroads, so we’ve been a member of the community,” continued Adams, who was property manager at the former mall from 1994 until it closed on Feb 1, 2004.

Over the years, Adams said, Westcor has had many opportunities to talk with customers. Once the concept for Twenty Ninth Street emerged in 2003, Westcor held focus groups, online polls and more than 100 community presentations, he said, “So we’ve been able to get a lot of feedback from Boulder residents and guests.”

Adams and Williams both emphasized the differences between Twenty Ninth Street and FlatIron Crossing.
Twenty Ninth Street, for example, has The Territory Ahead and White House/Black Market for apparel and Z Gallerie for home decor, while FlatIron Crossing has The Gap, Abercrombie and Pottery Barn, Adams pointed out.

Williams emphasized that Westcor’s ownership of both shopping centers made it important to differentiate between the two so people would shop at both; more than 70 percent of Twenty Ninth Street tenants aren’t at FlatIron Crossing. “We wanted to have something different, and we don’t want people to not go to FlatIron when they want to visit a closed mall on a windy day.”

Even with Men’s Wearhouse the only exclusively men’s store, neither Adams nor Williams are worried about keeping men interested in Twenty Ninth Street.

Macy’s, MontBell, Eddie Bauer, Levi’s, Puma, Champs and The Territory Ahead all carry menswear, Adams said. “We don’t have fine boutique menswear like Kinsley or The Regiment Shop (both in Boulder). But I think the merchandise we do have for men is very appropriate for the person at Twenty Ninth Street.”

“There is no typical male shopper,” Williams said. “A junior will shop at Abercrombie, older men do a lot of shopping in department stores. But they are not our primary shopper. They typically don’t like to shop unless they have to get something for their wife or girlfriend or if they wore out their favorite pair of pants, and they have to bite the bullet and buy a new pair. Their attitude is ‘Get me in and out and back on my bike or in front of the football game.'”

Williams thinks men will appreciate the restaurants, though. “It goes from fast food to fast casual to better dining. For this size center I think we did a good job of getting a good mix to appeal to many tastes.”

Not every retailer that wanted a spot at Twenty Ninth Street got one, Williams said. “We turned a lot of tenants down that we didn’t think were appropriate – some of the junior players that you’d see in a typical mall and some of the fast food places.

“We’re not just leasing our center, we’re merchandizing it – getting the right merchants for the right spaces for our customers. When you have a quality community like Boulder with a quality project like Twenty Ninth Street, you’ve got to put the right tenants in the right spot.”

Contact Caron Schwartz Ellis at 303-440-4950 or csellis@bcbr.com.

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