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Shore Thing
Clinton and Westbrook outlets find unforeseen success
on the retail-starved shoreline
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Business New Haven
4/20/1998
By: BNH
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Tippi Carr doesn't care that Clinton Crossing Premium Outlets on Killingworth Turnpike in Clinton is one of 20 - and one of the most profitable - of premium shopping centers owned and operated by Chelsea CGA Realty Inc., a real estate investment trust (REIT).
Carr doesn't care that Chelsea GCA is a “self-administered and self-managed REIT that specializes in the development, leasing, marketing, management and long-term ownership of upscale and fashion-oriented manufacturers' outlet centers,” as the company profile defines itself.
Carr is an “inspirational shopper.” She likes to “feel good, treat myself” when she shops, and Clinton Crossing is nice to shop at, she says. “Good stuff, good prices. Total fun.”
And what Carr likes, according to Michele Rothstein, vice president of marketing for Chelsea GCA, is what Carr gets when she, and thousands like her, visit Clinton Crossing. It's the secret to Chelsea GCA's success.
“We've found our niche in the industry,” Rothstein explains. “We're a shopping adventure. We don't offer just discount pricing. We're not a mall. We're not a factory outlet, we're not the cheapest. We're beautiful architecture, we're designer outlets, we're quality, we're value, we're upscale.”
What they also are is a hit with shoppers, Wall Street and, most importantly, their corporate parent.
Chelsea GCA planned it that way.
Sales figures for Clinton Crossing show that its average sales per square foot for 1997 were a whopping $517.
For a center to achieve Chelsea GCA's highest class of sales per square foot, it must do $350-plus per foot. Clinton Crossing has been in the highest class from the get-go. In 1996, open for only the last quarter of the year, Clinton Crossing averaged $360 a square foot.
Even J.P. Morgan Securities loves them.
According to a March 11 report from that company's equity research, Chelsea GCA Realty is a Buy. Morgan calls the company “the class act of the outlet sector,” and bold-prints its management team as “among the best in the business.”
Chelsea GCA trades on the New York Stock Exchange as CCG. For those with gotta-have-it stock portfolios, Morgan predicts a first-class funds from operations (FFO) growth of 12.7 percent in 1998.
How do they do it?
Chelsea GCA has a marketing concept and a strategy. It targets the shopper in search of upscale chic, prestige brands, good value and a pleasant shopping experience.
For Clinton Crossing, Chelsea created a “New England-style, architecturally-themed outdoor village,” the company's fact sheet says.
“It's what the shoreline was waiting for,” says shopper Carr.
Explains Rothstein: “We do it with identity and imagery. Our target is the sophisticated shopper who demands quality and recognizes value. We create a pleasant atmosphere for the shopper; a village setting. Clinton Crossing is like a little town of its own. All our outlets are premium, with first-class national brands - Coach, Donna Karen, Ralph Lauren, for example. We make sure we're optimally situated facing a highway.”
And the company markets its image hard.
It has a Web site: www.chelseaGCA.com, which offers information and entertainment. Every month, for instance, Chelsea GCA runs a contest. Write a “funny shopping experience,” mail it in, and you too can win $250 to spend at a Chelsea GCA premium outlet.
Chelsea GCA offers a VIP shopping club for frequent shoppers. It's an attractive booklet with lots of discount coupons.
Rothstein is now working with tour groups which will be scheduling stops at Clinton Crossing on their way to other Northeast destinations such as Connecticut's gambling casinos or weekenders heading to or from a New England shore.
And when Chelsea opened Clinton Crossing on Labor Day weekend in 1996, the entertainment wasn't “dancing clowns,” Rothstein says. “It was a string quartet.”
The place were mobbed.
According to James M. McCusker Jr., Clinton's first selectman, Clinton Crossing is the town's leading taxpayer.
“They've contributed $750,000 a year in tax dollars over the past two years,” McCusker said in January. And last year, after some red-ink years, the town of Clinton's coffers held a surplus.
Ethan Allen Furniture has bought an adjoining piece of property on Killingworth Turnpike (Route 81), and intends to build a store there later this year, piggy-backing on CCPO's success.
And just a little further up I-95, off exit 65, Westbrook Factory Stores is packing in customers, too.
Westbrook Factory Stores (WFS) was the first premium shopping center on the shoreline. It opened its 65 stores in November 1995. A success from the first, WFS continues to out-perform itself, according to Nina Dolishny Regan, manager of marketing and management.
While WFS will not release its sales figures, Regan says 1997 sales were up 11.8 percent over the previous year.
Indeed, Charter Oak Partners, which owns WFS, “is one of the top five outlet center developers in the United States,” says the trade publication Value Retail News.
And Charter Oak is already expanding the outlet center with a multiplex cinema complex, scheduled to open this fall.
WFS' roster of merchandisers features such national brands as J. Crew, Reebok, Rockport and Levi Strauss.
Before CCPO, Westbrook Factory Stores created the “New England shopping village” along the Connecticut shoreline.
The center “is patterned after an old-fashioned train station with barn-red cedar shake-type siding, stone bases, gabled roofs and dormered windows,” as its fact sheet describes their setting.
The village includes “themed courtyards.” In two of the courtyards, WFS accentuates Connecticut and the shoreline with two outdoor attractions.
One is a restored 1930 steam locomotive. WFS dedicated the locomotive “to the people of Westbrook for their support in welcoming WFS to its community,” the company says.
The second set piece is the cruising yawl Fanshawe, built in 1902, which used to race. The boat stands now near the Timberland store. In April 1996 Fanshawe “was dedicated to the Long Island Sound Fund for its work restoring and maintaining” the Sound.
When savvy shopper Carr visits Westbrook Factory Stores she can hit any of 65 stores, lunch at one of six food courts, and relax on a bench while her two children explore the sailing ship.
WFS schedules a year-long calendar of special events, such as a Children's Easter egg hunt and a muscular dystrophy telethon in September.
Such community outreach has been quite popular, marketing manager Regan says.
“I bring the kids when I shop Westbrook,” says Carr. “I find what I want, good prices. The kids love it.”
Barely ten months older than Clinton Crossing, Westbrook Factory Stores has its group-tour program firmly in place. Fifteen or more in a group can descend upon the Springmaid Wamsutta store there, and each shopper will be given a WFS shopping bag with a coupon booklet and store directory.
WFS will also feed the bus driver free, a nice touch.
So, good-bye mall crawl.
The “shopping adventure” has arrived on the shoreline. And from REIT investor to shopping center developer to retail vendor to Carr and her crew, everyone seems to be benefiting.
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