Saks Will Anchor Updated, Expanded Mall in Palos Verdes

Upscale retailer Saks Fifth Avenue will anchor a remodeled Palos Verdes mall when it reopens next fall, its developers said Thursday.

Birmingham, Ala.-based Saks Inc. has signed an agreement to open a 42,000-square-foot “Main Street”-format store in the center formerly known as the Shops at Palos Verdes. Saks’ smaller Main Street stores cater to suburban tastes.

It will be the ninth such store Saks has opened in wealthy neighborhoods around the country. Earlier this week it opened a similar store in Old Pasadena.

The two-level store will be the largest in the 370,000-square-foot mall, renamed the Avenue of the Peninsula, when it opens in November after a $78-million make-over. Robinsons-May and Macy’s pulled out of the mall in 1996 and early ’97. The remaining stores are to close in February for the nine-month construction period.

Cousins Properties Inc. purchased the 18-year-old mall last February and immediately announced plans to lure retailers back to the center by peeling the roof off the common areas and giving it a more gentrified, Craftsman-style appearance.

“I think this will be a much more unique, open-air experience. A lot of tenants are coming back to the project with larger stores,” says John Hopkins, Cousins senior vice president.

Banana Republic will open a store at the center and Gap is tripling the size of its store. Gourmet kitchen shop Williams-Sonoma and women’s clothier Ann Taylor have decided to double the size of their shops. Regal Cinemas will add five screens to total 13.

Another 40,000 square feet of retail space will be added when Deep Valley Drive, which cuts through the project, is closed. Retailers for that space will be announced in coming months.