RETAIL : Ross, Maxx Stores to Open Outlets at Tustin Market Place
Two off-price apparel retailers--Ross Stores Inc. and T.J. Maxx--next month will become the two newest anchor tenants at the Tustin Market Place.
Ross Stores Inc. expects to open a 25,000-square-foot store on Nov. 1 at the Tustin site, which is at Jamboree Boulevard off Interstate 5.
T.J. Maxx also plans to open a 26,000-square-foot store at the center in about two weeks, said Dennis Borowsky, leasing agent with Donahue Schriber of Newport Beach.
Right now, the 750,000-square-foot center includes three home improvement retailers as anchor tenants--STOR, Home Express and Home Depot.
Ross Stores and T.J. Maxx are being added as part of the second stage of leasing, which will include three more anchor tenants located across the street from the existing tenants on the north side of El Camino Real. Chicks Sports Goods is planning to occupy a 49,000-square-foot space in the spring and Donahue Schriber also is talking with Kids-R-Us about leasing a 22,000-square-foot space. The final anchor tenant for an 18,000-square-foot space is undetermined, Borowsky said.
A six-screen Edwards Cinema is also due to eventually join the Tustin center.
For Ross Stores, the Tustin site will be the seventh in Orange County. Other existing county locations include Costa Mesa, Santa Ana, El Toro, Cypress, Fullerton and Huntington Beach.
The Market Place was chosen after Ross Stores determined it met the chain’s criteria of good visibility, sufficient drive-by traffic and good demographics, said Katie Loughnot, a spokeswoman for the company. “In terms of population and income, and all the other stores, Orange County is a very successful location for us,” Loughnot said.
The Tustin opening is part of a larger fall expansion by Ross that includes adding four other stores in Southern California, two in the San Francisco Bay area, two in Florida and a third in Austin, Tex.
Norman Ferber, president and chief executive of Ross, said the openings “reflect our strategy of gaining market share by intensifying our presence in existing markets.”
With the latest openings, Ross will have 78 stores in California. The 7-year-old company plans to have 156 stores in 15 states by the middle of November.
For the year to date, Ross stores have averaged sales of $201 per square foot on a net selling basis. Net income for the 1988 fiscal year ending Jan. 31 totaled $26 million on sales of $634 million.
Framingham, Mass.-based T.J. Maxx has a total of 325 stores in about 40 states. Of those, four are now open in Orange County--in Orange, Buena Park, Cerritos and Garden Grove. The chain, which sells family apparel at discounted prices, moved into the Southern California market in 1987.
