South Coast Plaza and Fashion Island Honor Top Sellers

It isn’t exactly the Academy Awards, but Orange County’s arch rivals--South Coast Plaza and Newport Center Fashion Island--have announced their retail equivalents.

Among specialty stores, overall 1986 top sales honors went to two unlikely candidates: South Coast Plaza’s Polo/Ralph Lauren and Fashion Island’s Irvine Ranch Farmers Market.

Close at the heels of South Coast Plaza’s winner in overall sales was Ann Taylor, a women’s apparel shop, followed by Eddie Bauer, a casual, outdoor apparel store.

At Fashion Island, the No. 2 and 3 slots in overall sales were Amen Wardy, the designer-stocked women’s dress shop, and At Ease, a family-apparel store.

The area’s two most visible shopping centers listed major anchors separately from specialty stores in making their annual tallies and would not reveal exact sales totals.

Not surprisingly, it was some of the smallest stores at each mall that won in the sales-per-square-foot category.

The biggest sales per square foot in Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza was Nathan Alan, a 633-square-foot jewelry store that placed first for the third consecutive year. Second-place honors went to the Custom Shop Shirtmakers, a 992-square-foot store. Crabtree & Evelyn, a 540-square-foot store specializing in such luxury bath goods as avocado oil soaps, placed third in the square-foot-sales category.

Amen Wardy, Fashion Island’s No. 1 retailer in sales per square foot, is a 20,000-square-foot designer-stocked store which dresses Joan Rivers for her late-night television show. First runner-up was Wyndham Leigh, a very upscale jeweler, followed by M. Jacques Furrier.

The Fashion Island results were released at an annual “Breakfast of Champions” two weeks ago, when Barbara Rappolo, director of management, formally announced the year’s total sales of $215 million, a 12% increase over 1985. “Nationally, retail sales rose just 3% last year, so we’re extremely pleased,” Rappolo said.

South Coast Plaza’s year-end results were announced last weekend at a 20th birthday bash for the shopping center, which has the largest volume on the West Coast. About 400 guests at the Saturday night celebration held lighted candles and sang “Happy Birthday” to the mall, which had 1986 sales of $517 million, a 16% increase over the prior year.

Henry Segerstrom, managing partner of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, South Coast Plaza’s developer, promised even more spectacular sales over the next five years. By 1992, the Costa Mesa center “should become the first planned shopping center in America to exceed $1 billion in sales,” Segerstrom predicted.

In the meantime, South Coast Plaza’s tenants will need to increase sales to keep up with the competition. According to Segerstrom, over the next five years, retailers will need sales volumes of $500-per-square-foot to compete. “Many will reach $1,000 per square foot and some will reach $2,000 per square foot,” he predicted.

South Coast Plaza has average sales now of about $300 per square foot, according to James E. Henwood, general manager of the mall. At Fashion Island, which also celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, average sales per square foot are about $235, Rappolo said. Both centers outdistance typical shopping centers, which ordinarily record sales of about $200 per square foot, according to Steve Ginsberg, Los Angeles bureau chief with Women’s Wear Daily.

The only area where Fashion Island appeared to outdistance Orange County’s largest center was in food sales. No restaurants or fast-food retailers were listed among South Coast Plaza’s list of the top three in overall sales or sales per square foot.

The absence of any single area with restaurants or food shops at South Coast Plaza could be the reason those eateries--unlike Irvine Ranch Farmers Market--were not among the tops in sales. “Their food isn’t as concentrated” as at Fashion Island, Ginsberg said. “You walk into Atrium Court and you’re right in the midst of it. But you really have to seek out the food at South Coast Plaza,” he added.

Among the big anchor tenants, Nordstrom in Costa Mesa led the list, sweeping two categories with its reported sales last year of about $110 million. The Seattle-based retailer was South Coast Plaza’s top volume store and had highest sales per square foot for a major store.

In Newport Beach, its counterpart for highest sales among major retailers last year was JW Robinson’s. The Fashion Island location aced out Neiman-Marcus, Buffums and Bullocks Wilshire with 1986 sales estimated at about $44 million, according to Women’s Wear Daily.