The grand opening of the new Dillard's Department Store Wednesday morning at Sandy's South Towne Center made it official: The mall is now the largest retail complex in Utah.
"The addition of Dillard's represents a further affirmation of the bright prospects for the merchants of South Towne Center," said David Contis, senior vice president of operations for mall owner The Macerich Co., based in Santa Monica, Calif."The store at South Towne will not only be Dillard's largest location in Utah but the largest department store in the state," he added.
The 212,000-square-foot Dillard's joins ZCMI, J.C. Penney and Mervyn's as anchor tenants at South Towne, along with a Super Target discount store at South Towne Marketplace, the nearby "power center" that opened last year.
The addition of Dillard's includes a two-level, 27,000-square-foot wing that connects Dillard's to the existing mall. New shops scheduled to open in the wing include Athletic Fitters clothing and shoes, Select Comfort sleep shop, Spencer Gifts and Whiz Kidz. All but Spencer Gifts are new to the Salt Lake area. A spokesman said leases are currently being negotiated on five other store spaces in the new wing.
"Both Dillard's and our new retailers are going to add a diversified element to our tenant mix. We see only very strong sales for the future," said Don Pott, general manager of South Towne.
Including Dillard's, South Towne has added more than 750,000 square feet of retail space over the past five years. Contis said specialty store sales at the mall are expected to top $275 per square foot this year and $300 in 1998.
Other new stores that have recently opened throughout the mall include Accessory Depot women's fashions, Inkley's cameras and electronics, Wasatch Clothing Co. and Ritz Cafe and Bakery.
The mall can accommodate even more growth, said Contis, noting there is room for another large fashion department store along with 20 to 40 additional specialty shops.
John Genovese, vice president of real estate for Macerich, said the rest of the mall is being updated along with the Dillard's opening, including carpeted seating areas with wood benches, new landscaping planters, repainting and other amenities.
South Towne, which now has 1.23 million square feet of leasable space on 161 acres, opened in 1986 and was expanded in 1992 and again in 1994. It currently has 138 tenants.
The Macerich Co., a real estate investment trust that owns 24 malls throughout the country, bought South Towne in April from the Zell-Merrill Lynch Real Estate Opportunity Partners I fund in a deal valued at $98 million. Zell had acquired the mall in 1988, two years after its opening.