River Cities Business Journal: Cover Story

Today's News-Herald

LAKE HAVASU CITY - The new retail mall means the city will see plenty of new stores - both at the mall and in other locations.

Already announced for the Shops at Lake Havasu Regional Lifestyle Center are J.C. Penney Co. Inc., Dillard's and Wal-Mart.

Two of those stores - Wal-Mart and J.C. Penney - are already in town, at the shopping center at State Route 95 and Kiowa Avenue.

Their movement to the mall will create vacancies at what is now one of the community's most frequented shopping destinations.

“I have no concern of a (customer) drop-off,” said Food City Store Manager Terry Daniels. “I already did my homework. I know there's new businesses coming. We all compliment one another, so maybe there's a little concern. But it's just a matter of time until the new stores come in, get set and then we'll be fine.”

Eisenberg Co., of Phoenix, owns the shopping center except for the Wal-Mart building. Today's News-Herald calls to Eisenberg Co. were not returned, but one of its tenants, Sally Beauty Co., is already in talks to leave for another location.

“We have been offered space in a new development in Lake Havasu,” said Sally Beauty's Shana Dewhirst. “We're in the process of assessing that offer but nothing is set in stone yet.”

Gail Jefferies, vice president of real estate for Susie's Deals, said not much is known other than the corporation will continue to honor its lease for the local store.

“We don't know what we're doing at this point,” Jefferies said.

The Wal-Mart Corp. owned the existing Wal-Mart building. With the movement to a larger supercenter at the retail mall, Wal-Mart sold the building to Sonoma, Calif., developers A&C Ventures.

“It's a great location. We think Lake Havasu's great,” said A&C Ventures partner Matt Howarth.

The developer plans to divide the building into two to four new spaces and lease to retail businesses.

“The market is, in our feeling, underserved, especially in retail. So we're talking to a number of national and regional retailers,” said Howarth, who declined to name the companies.

Plans to divide the building should be submitted to the city by summer. Howarth said the goal is to have the leases in place and the businesses open by Christmas 2008.

The Lake Havasu City Partnership for Economic Development also is helping attract new retailers to fill the vacancies created by the movement of Wal-Mart and J.C. Penney, as well as some of the new mall storefronts.

“We started working on that about two months ago and began to do some outreach,” said PED President and CEO Gary Kellogg. “Anything along that corridor is very important.”

Wolford Development Inc., a Tennessee-based mall developer, is developing the Shops at Lake Havasu Regional Lifestyle Center.

The 108-acre parcel, located on the city's north side across State Route 95 from Lake Havasu City Municipal Airport, also includes seven outparcels for future development by individual businesses.

The mall will be accessible by State Route 95 on the east and a five-lane road connecting to London Bridge Road on the west.

The three anchor stores - J.C. Penney, Dillard's and Wal-Mart - are scheduled to be up and operating by March 2008. Full build-out of the mall should be complete by 2009.

No other tenants have been confirmed yet, but project manager Clint Wolford said he hopes to announce more tenants in the next 30 days.