There is at least one retail center in Utah where a shopper can pick up a $135 imported Italian summer dress for her 7-year-old daughter — and a $61 chenille bathrobe for her 4-year-old sister.
It's also the single Salt Lake area spot that includes a Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Williams-Sonoma and a Banana Republic that sells shoes.
Utah's only Hard Rock Cafe, Pottery Barn Kids and eastern clothiers like Talbot's and Harold's are there, and it is believed to be Utah's only mall with a liquor-pouring private club — it has two.
The retail hub is Trolley Square, a renovated old-time trolley depot that saw its large car barns transformed into a shopping mall by local developer Wally Wright back in 1971.
Ultra-innovative then, Trolley Square remains unique in Utah. And in its fourth decade, it strives to stay relevant in Salt Lake City's ever-cutthroat retail mall scene.
The latest concept: the trendy Madstone Theaters, which could transform the mall's movie four-plex into an art house film lovers' dream. With its opening scheduled for July, Madstone will become another in a long line of upscale stores at Trolley that mall managers hope will keep the shopping center's head above water for years to come.
The Trolley Madstone is only the 10th of its kind nationwide. In each locale where it has opened, Madstone has created a stir. The theaters show mostly independent movies and offer upscale food and beverages, including espresso, for patrons, who are also encouraged to take their food into the theater, where they can set it on a table and eat while enjoying the show.
Longtime Trolley tenants like Shelley Gatez, who has operated a bathtique there for 30 years, hope the theaters will breathe new life into the shopping center. She remembers how things were when Trolley opened.
"It used to be this place was so crowded you couldn't even walk," she said. "I'm really excited about the Madstone Theaters. People just need to rediscover Trolley."
Trolley was developed in 1971 with private funds — no city subsidies — and has absolutely no connection to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which often unwittingly becomes a political lightning rod in Salt Lake City.
Given those factors, Trolley generally has been beyond the political bickering, controversy and squabbling that have pestered Salt Lake City's other major malls — The Gateway, Crossroads and ZCMI Center — in recent years.
Trolley's owners — Simon Property Group, which purchased the mall from Wright in 1986 — steer clear of city politics and don't make large campaign contributions to city leaders and political candidates, as Gateway owner Boyer Co. and former Crossroad Plaza owner Foulger-Pratt have done.
"We tend to stay less involved in politics as a company than more so," Simon spokeswoman Billie Scott explained.
Upscale emphasis
Indeed, Simon probably has a lot to do with Trolley's survival and success.
Based in Indianapolis, Simon is the largest publicly traded retail real estate investment trust in North America and is the nation's largest owner, developer and manager of high-quality retail real estate. Its portfolio includes some of the country's most recognizable malls, including Copley Place in Boston, The Forum Shops at Caesar's in Las Vegas and the Mall of America in Minneapolis.
Simon's connections to almost all upscale retailers in the nation also help it secure stores at Trolley that other Salt Lake area malls can't get.
"Because of our size, in terms of most upscale or more modest retail venues, we do generally have a good relationship with every major chain in the country — that helps," Scott said.
While many of Trolley's clothiers and other retailers are common in the Eastern United States, they are almost an anomaly in Salt Lake City, whose residents are often considered more JC Penney and less Saks Fifth Avenue.
But even with Simon's power, Trolley does have issues it must face, such as increased competition from suburban malls and a slumping retail economy.
One challenge is a high turnover, but not with the anchors, like Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware. Instead, it is the smaller stores that often don't survive at Trolley.
"The problem is that it is mostly speciality stores that don't stay here that long, maybe only like a year or so," said Lindsay Romney, who has worked at various stores in Trolley over the past four years.
Adds Pottery Barn Kids manager Samantha Randel: "There are so many vacant spaces here it's sad."
Mall manager Dawn Katter says the retail turnover of smaller shops happens because Trolley is willing to take risks on innovative or creative upstarts that are shunned by more traditional malls. Case in point is a gay men's clothing store, which gave it a run at Trolley but recently closed.
Filling a niche
But even as many specialty outlets fail, a few survive.
Take The Secret Garden, which has done business for seven years at Trolley. It sells children's clothes of the type that only the Park City set can afford. Only here can shoppers buy their children a $100 Monkey Wear brand dress from Italy or an $80 Donna Ricco outfit from New York, or the Mini-man brand from France.
"It really is a unique store in Salt Lake City," saleswoman April Nelson said. "The clothes here are very expensive, more than I would spend on clothes for myself."
And beyond the children, The Secret Garden is a place a petite woman — like University of Utah gymnasts — can find high-end designer clothes that fit.
Art also has helped sustain Trolley through the years, and the mall now houses several galleries.
Local Colors, a gallery co-op, opened following the 2002 Winter Games. The 40 artists share rent payments and take turns manning the store — usually each artist spends two days a week there — and each is allowed to display some of his or her pieces there.
Artist Roberta Glidden wishes there were more daytime customers, but operating as a co-op spreads the cost so the store can survive.
"It's pretty empty," Glidden said as she looks down one of the mall's halls. "People are really struggling. I remember when it opened it was really full."
One potential problem for these smaller stores is that Trolley seems to be more of a one-stop mall than a strolling-around, looking-at-all-the-stores place. For instance, shoppers there, many employees say, come specifically for one store — Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Williams-Sonoma, or to hit a restaurant or club. So while these larger anchors do well, the smaller stores can struggle.
"Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids bring a lot of traffic in; otherwise, the other business would fail," Randel said. "People come here specifically for one store. They don't walk around that much."
Entertainment options
Time was, Trolley was the place to shop in Salt Lake City. When it opened even the New York Times took note, writing:
"Trolley Square is now thronged with shoppers and sightseers, moviegoers and diners. A privately financed, $7 million redevelopment project has given a new lift to an aging neighborhood and may set a pattern for similar refurbishing of trolley bars or bus garages elsewhere in the nation."
Nowadays, mall managers go out of their way to find creative plans to keep the mall viable. In the summer they have a free concert series dubbed "Tuesdays at Trolley." And four days a week — after 10 p.m. — Trolley's southern atrium turns into a full-fledged dance club. Here on Tuesdays, Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays, young people bump, grind, two-step and salsa to various beats, bringing revenue to Trolley because dance managers pay to rent the atrium space.
And, of course, among Trolley's major successes have been its restaurants — the Desert Edge Brewery, Old Spaghetti Factory, Rodizio Grill, Hard Rock Cafe, Tony Roma's and The Wing Company all find themselves packed on weekend nights. And most weekday nights the restaurants do well, too.
"The evening restaurant traffic does very well here," Katter said. "We've always been a high-end, upscale facility and brought in those one-of-a-kind stores to Utah to cater to that market."
And there's Trolley's private clubs — Green Street and the Brickhouse at Hard Rock Cafe. Where Salt Lake City's other midtown malls have been unable to contain private clubs, Trolley has welcomed them. Green Street, with patio seating, pool tables, two bars, big screen televisions and a dance club, brings a different crowd to the mall, contributing to its allure.
"Lately the entertainment side has been stronger," Katter said.
E-MAIL: bsnyder@desnews.com