85 percent of FlatIron retailers opening doors

BROOMFIELD – At the “soft” opening of the FlatIron Crossing shopping center last week, it was clear a massive amount of work was left to be completed before the mall’s official grand opening.

Janet Beaudry, senior marketing director for Westcor, the mall’s developer, said about 170 of the more than 200 retailers, or 85 percent of the leased space, will be open for business on Aug. 11, the official first day.

Compared to other mall openings, FlatIron Crossing is ahead of the game, with the typical rate for retailers ready for grand openings at more like 70 percent, said Allison Jones, also on Westcor’s marketing staff.

Westcor prefers to call FlatIron Crossing a shopping center and not a mall, Jones added. “We tried to combine the outdoors with the indoors like Pearl Street in Boulder and Cherry Creek and Larimer Square in Denver,” Jones said. That kind of hybrid is really not a mall, according to Jones.

Dillard’s department store, the first retailer to open on Aug. 4, put on a class act for its first shoppers.

Not only was the store ready, its presentation was perfect with a full complement of friendly sales associates completely trained and ready to serve.

Not a hair was out of place on the professionally dressed, well-groomed sales staff, with each wearing a Dillard’s gold name pin. Personnel in cosmetics wore the required black outfit with black blazer; skin care wore white jacket dresses over street clothes; and men and women in other departments wore the standard for Dillard’s blazer suits. The store was immaculate and beautifully decorated. Merchandise was colorfully displayed and neat as a pin. No hint of the chaos going on outside – construction workers speeding the wrong way on one-way streets or turning in front of customers trying to get into the shopping area – was discernible.

“The FlatIron store is fabulous and what a Dillard’s is supposed to look like,´ said Irene Martinez, counter manager for the Guedian and Anna Sui cosmetic line. Martinez transferred from the Westminster Dillard’s, a former Joslin’s store that was remodeled when it was sold.

Shopper Kim Wells and her daughter Madison and son Caton were delighted with the new Dillard’s and FlatIron Crossing. “This is where we will shop from now on,” she said, including her husband, Michael. Wells said they live in Rock Creek, which is minutes away, where her husband is an independent property appraiser.

Workmen frantically climbed ladders installing wiring and signs and hammering facades into place. Construction schedules varied depending upon whom you talked to. Westcor said its construction people were working 12 to 14 hours a day to get the shopping center finished inside and out before the grand opening.

Phillip Tregeagle, superintendent at Munlake Contractors, which is finishing the Cinnabon bakery on the second level, said his workmen are putting in 15 hours to 19 hours, seven days a week until the bakery is finished. “If we have to work 24 hours, we will, but we will kick it out,” he said. They are doing a five-week job in three weeks. Munlake Project Manager Elzy Lasley said his crew was on schedule to turn the completed store over to Cinnabon on Aug. 8.

Architects for FlatIron Crossing have designed special features that people won’t fully appreciate until they see them, like the ceiling on the inside of the shopping center made of terra cotta-colored recycled wood. The reddish boards are placed at an angle that reflect the angle of the Flatiron formations west of Boulder. “They wanted to add something special, something that you wouldn’t see at any other shopping center and something that is particular to this area,” Jones said.

Another innovative touch is the roaming carts for specialty companies like Impulse, which makes software for artists, specializing in 3D and real-time systems. Wooden structures that look like vendors’ carts you see in movies, the roaming carts can be moved around or permanently placed in areas throughout the shopping center.

FlatIron Crossing is about 95 percent leased, according to Mary Boyd, a leasing agent for Westcor. “There are less than 10 spaces available inside and only two or three in the Village,” she said. Rates average about $35 to $40 per square foot in the Village and on average, about $11 more inside, depending on where the space is located. In addition, there are extra charges of less than $10 for the Village and between $14 and $16 a square foot inside. Retail space in both places has taxes of between $3 and $5 and marketing fees of about $3.50, Boyd said.

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