Jennifer Lopez sings about strapping on her Louboutins, and now the high fashion stiletto shop will be one of the first additions to the tenant lineup at Highland Park Village since the landmark shopping center changed hands last year.

Christian Louboutin, the Paris based high heel boutique, is expected to sign its lease this week. Other tenants opening soon in Highland Park Village include New York’s Leggiadro, an Italian inspired clothing boutique, and Marquee Club, an upscale global fusion restaurant from restaurateur Brian Twomey that features Tre Wilcox of “Top Chef” fame.

Plans call red bottoms for adding three restaurants and two or three more retailers this year, said Stephen Summers, director of leasing at the center and managing director of HP Village Partners LP, the new ownership entity.

The key will be maintaining a tenant mix that blends luxury brands such as Louboutin, Herms and Chanel with daily destinations like Starbucks, Tom Thumb and Village Barber Shop where Summers got his first haircut as a toddler.

“We’re trying to create as many reasons for people to come to the center as possible,” Summers said. “We’re looking for the everyday uses and for stuff that can’t be bought anywhere else in the region.”

Retail space in Highland Park Village leases for about $125 per square foot plus a percentage of sales, placing it among the most pricey retail locales in the state. But the owners work red bottom boots with neighborhood shops that can’t afford to pay those rates, Summers said, because they want to maintain balance in the center.

And although red bottom pumps $125 per square foot may sound like a lot in Dallas, the amount doesn’t faze luxury retailers accustomed to paying four times that amount for space on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills or 10 times that amount on Manhattan’s 5th Avenue, Summers said.

“With the volumes they’re doing here, it seems relatively inexpensive,” he said.

Retail real estate sources estimate store sales for luxury retailers in Highland Park Village range from $1,000 per square foot to more than $1,500 per square foot annually.

Ray Washburne said he and his partners know the shopping center and its clientele well. All four partners grew up in the neighborhood and graduated from Highland Park High School, allowing them to apply the lessons of their lifetimes to their business strategies at the christian louboutin replica center, he said.

“We want to maintain the unique chemistry and balance that has made the Village what it is,” Washburne said. location. The others are in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Miami.

Leggiadro is scheduled to open next month. Summers declined to name the other retailers considering leases.

The 7,300 square foot Marquee Club, opening in October, will include a second floor bar and “creative concessions” area. Opening in October, it will serve the center’s movie theater, which is under renovation, said Washburne, president and general partner of HP Village Partners.

Highland Park Village is also in lease negotiations with an Asian fusion restaurant and a New American Grill, said Summers, who declined to name the eateries before the leases are signed. The Asian restaurant is tentatively scheduled to louboutin replica open late this year and the New American restaurant red bottom heels is scheduled to open in early 2011, he said.

Another big change is the remodeling of Village Theatre, which was built in 1935 as the first luxury theater in Texas. It will reopen this fall with a 200 seat theater, a 110 seat theater and two smaller theaters that will hold about 20 for private events, Summers said. The theater will have leather stadium seating and top notch sound and video, he said.

He declined to reveal how much is being spent on the renovations.

“When we bought the center, we realized the theater hadn’t been renovated since 1989,” Summers said. “It had the same seating and the same carpets replica louboutin as it did in 1989. It wasn’t a best in class experience, and what we’ve found is, people in Highland Park Village demand a first rate experience.”

The recession has hit luxury retailers especially hard, which could make life a little more difficult for the new owners of Highland Park Village, said Alan Shor, president of The Retail Connection, a real estate brokerage. “I think the days of conspicuous consumption are over, at least for a while,” Shor said. “I don’t think the luxury sector is going to come back for quite a while.”

That said, the Texas economy in general, and North Texas in particular, seem to replica christian louboutin be holding up better than the rest of the nation, Shor added.

Highland Park Village’s location amidst the region’s wealthiest neighborhoods will help the retailers there, he said.

“It’s a wonderful center in the middle of some of the best red bottom shoes demographics in the country,” he said. “If luxury can make it anywhere, it should be there.”

Overall sales at Highland Park Village dipped for the first six months of 2009, but have been on the rise since then, Summers said. The retail space is 98% leased, he said.

“If Highland Park Village is any indication of the overall economy, we seem to be coming out of the downturn very nicely,” he said.

Demand at Highland Park Village continues to be strong because the center is known as a high end fashion destination, and those shops like to cluster, said Bob Young, managing director of The Weitzman Group retail real estate firm. Keeping the right tenant mix will be the biggest challenge the new owners face, he said.

“It’s a real delicate balance to keep the flavor of the property,” he said. “It has to be a blend of legacy and heritage, but with an edge toward fashion.”

Young said he believes within the next five years, Highland Park Village’s tenant roster will be even more exclusive than it is now, with a greater number of stores that have just a handful of locations in the world.

“The marketing strategy before the new ownership group was pushing the envelope on the edge of fashion,” he said. “I think this group is going to blow the roof off.”Articles Connexes：