Though officials at Wisconsin-based Kohl's still won't talk about their plans, Regency Centers Corp. of Florida says it will co-develop a 93,000-sf Kohl's store on a 16-acre parcel in the Orange County community of Rancho Santa Margarita. It would be the first Kohl's store to be built west of Denver.
GlobeSt.com reported Jan. 3 that Kohl officials had contacted government officials in several Southland cities and also some of the region's commercial developers about a West Coast expansion. One developer said the chain's executives are planning to open as many as 35 stores in the region over the next two years.
Even a modest expansion by Kohl's into the Southern California market certainly would be welcomed by retail-property owners here, many of whom have been battered by bankruptcies and consolidations in several segments of the industry. Just yesterday, the LA-based investment firm Leonard Green & Partners said it had engineered a deal for Denver-based retailer Gart Sports Co. to buy Houston-based rival Oshman's Sporting Goods for $84 million in cash and stock.
Gart operates 120 Gart and Sportsmart stores in California and 15 other states. Oshman's has 58 US stores, 10 of which are in California. The merger will result in at least some store closings, although Gart's president/CEO Doug Martin said in a statement that "very few" will need to be shuttered.
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