Tiffany's Coming to Mall at Millenia

The 11-year-old Sawgrass Mill Mall in Sunrise, FL, near Fort Lauderdale, is the largest retail emporium in Florida at 2.2 million sf. The 1.6 million-sf Florida Mall in south Orlando is the largest retail center in central and north Florida.

Tiffany officials couldn't be reached at GlobeSt.com's publication deadline to learn construction details. But Orlando area construction industry estimators tell GlobeSt.com the store's shell is probably being built at $200 per sf or a total $1.5 million, twice the cost of most retail structures. Special security amenities raised the cost.

The Orlando store will be Tiffany's fifth in Florida. The jeweler has units Tampa, Bal Harbor, Boca Raton and Palm Beach. Tiffany's also plans to open new units this year in St. Louis; Bellevue, WA; East Hampton, NY; and Honolulu. The Orlando store will be the largest of the five stores being built this year.

Orlando area retail brokers familiar with Tiffany's development strategies tell GlobeSt.com the New York retailer selected Orlando and the four other new sites based on projected population growth; percentage of affluent households; percent of tourism; and existing high-end jewelery stores in each market.

Orlando retail analysts will be monitoring sales closely at Mall at Millenia. "Sales there will tell us a lot where the retail scene in Orlando is going," John M. Crossman, senior vice president/retail services, Trammell Crow Co., Orlando, tells GlobeSt.com. Sales at a high-end retailer such as Tiffany's will be one of the barometers local analysts will be watching.

Tiffany's is joining two other New York retail legends at Mall at Millenia--Bloomingdale's and Macy's. Neiman Marcus of Dallas is a third department store anchor. Tiffany's common on the New York Stock Exchange was trading at noon today at $35.09 per share, up 26 cents from $34.84 on Jan. 8. The $35.09 price is 77% up from the 2001 52-week low of $19.90 on Sept. 27, following the Sept. 11 terrorists' attacks in New York and Washington. The stock's high in 2001 reached $38.25.

Tiffany will be reporting fourth-quarter sales Jan. 31. Third-quarter net sales for the period ended Oct. 31 were $333 million, 10% lower than $372 million a year ago. Net earnings dropped by 34% to $24 million or 16 cents per diluted share, compared with $36.3 million or 24 cents per diluted share in third quarter 2000.

Tiffany's overall holiday sales were $473 million, down 2% from 2000 but better than the 15% decline store officials had feared.

"Considering the challenging external environment, we are pleased with these holiday season results, which, in total, exceeded our expectations going into the season, Tiffany CEO Michael Kowalski says in a prepared statement. "While customers continued to exhibit varying degrees of restraint in their holiday spending, there was a noticeable improvement in store traffic as the holiday season progressed."