Newport’s Fashion Island Credits Face Lift for Above-Target Sales

While still trailing far behind arch-rival South Coast Plaza in gross annual sales, Newport Beach’s Fashion Island restated its 1986 retail sales Friday to show an 11% increase--the same growth rate posted by its Costa Mesa competitor.

The new numbers boosted Fashion Island’s 1986 gross sales to $215 million from a previously reported $207 million. The center reported $193 million in sales in 1985.

The upscale fashion center gave its ongoing and costly face lift much of the credit for the above-target results for 1986.

Three weeks ago, a Fashion Island spokesman blamed a combination of competition from South Coast Plaza and construction at Fashion Island for a comparatively ho-hum 1986 sales estimate of $207 million.

On Friday, however, Barbara Roppolo, the mall’s management director, said the lower total was based on estimates of major retailers’ sales. Final figures reported last week by the center’s major retailers resulted in the brighter annual tally.

Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza, by contrast, hit $500 million in 1986 sales, up from $450 million the year before.

3% Increase Nationally

But according to Roppolo, the depressed retail industry last year saw sales nationally increase only about 3%.

“For us to do 11% validates that we’re on the right track and that the customer wants newer selection” sold in flashier, newer stores, she said.

In May, 1984, Fashion Island began a $72-million renovation project to spruce up the 20-year-old center.

Although the center’s sales typically have not ranked among the top 10 in Orange County, Fashion Island has always been among the most visible because of its trademark one-of-a-kind, trendy stores that appeal to middle- to top-end customers.

More of those buyers came flocking after the renovation’s first phase added the fancy Atrium Court, now one of the Southland’s busiest lunch spots, in mid-1985.

The face lift continued last year, with Fashion Island plowing about $20 million into the just-completed addition of 500 parking spaces and 7,500-square-feet of retail space.

By November, Fashion Island expects to complete the $20-million third phase of its renovation--just in time for the all-important holiday season. That project will remodel several existing buildings and create two new restaurants.

After that, center officials hope to start the fourth--and final--phase, adding 6,000 square feet of retail space, an outdoor performance plaza and a movie theater complex. The final phase, long on the drawing boards, was stalled by last year’s defeat in Newport Beach city elections of a master plan for expansion of the Newport Center area, which includes Fashion Island. Because of that, the final mall expansion will need city approval before construction can begin.

Roppolo forecast a hefty 12% to 15% sales increase for 1987, although she admitted that the projection “probably is ambitious because we’ll still be under construction.” If the final phase is completed, Roppolo predicted, sales will hit $300 million after one year of operation.