What Vans Seeks in OC Retail Space

CYPRESS, CA—Regional malls, the right tenant mix and wholesale dealers all figure into Vans' location choices, VF Outdoor & Action Sports' director of retail leasing Micky Hooks tells GlobeSt.com. Hooks handles all the retail space leasing for the widely popular Vans brand, in addition to others owned by the company, and will be speaking on the panel “Striding Forward: Developers & Retailers Share What's Next for OC” during RealShare Orange County on August 18. We caught up with Hooks to discuss the brand and what he looks for when considering retail space, particularly in the Orange County market.

GlobeSt.com: What type of space works best for the Vans brand?

Hooks: Vans is typically a regional-mall-driven store focused on a junior-based business. The prototype store is about 3,000 square feet. Even though the brand is based in Orange County, we've been expanding in the US, Mid-Atlantic and Southeast for 2016 and in the Midwest for 2017. We opened 20 new stores in 2015 and are opening another 25 stores in 2016, and we've pretty much filled those slots—there are six left. Vans grows by about 20 stores a year; we currently have more than 400 stores in the US, Canada and Mexico.

GlobeSt.com: What other criteria must the space have?

Hooks: The qualification for malls is that they must do $500 per square foot. Other tenants in the centers could include Forever 21, H&M, Zumiez—your basic juniors tenants. A mall would have to have those components, and if it's not a mall, it could be a lifestyle center, although those don't typically perform as strongly as a shopping environment for juniors—outdoor lifestyle centers don't have as many footsteps. As far as street retail goes, we're looking for more flagship locations. Vans does have some existing retail in Orange County, including its first handful of freestanding Vans stores on Beach Blvd., including majority of regional malls and outlets within Orange County. We're going to new markets including Chicago, Miami, New York and San Francisco—major high-street retail—and we're looking to open more dominant high-street retail. In Chicago, we just opened a store on Rush St., in Miami on Collins Ave. and on Walnut St. in Philadelphia. These are tourism driven.

GlobeSt.com: What are the main challenges to leasing space for your stores in the Orange County market?

Hooks: Ultimately, Orange County is a great market, but there's a lot of retail in a small area of space; a prime example is the mall at Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills Mall, the new outlet project in San Clemente and then the Irvine Spectrum, which popped up in that market in close proximity to the same customer base. There's an outlet project opening up close to Mission Viejo, so there could be a cannibalization of that customer base, to a certain extent. It may limit some retailers, but Vans is unique because we're based in Orange County, and that core foundation supports our many stores in close proximity. We're currently in the Irvine Spectrum and Mission Viejo. Mission Viejo and will be opening the outlet in San Clemente. Also, our wholesale dealers have product, too, and they are the core reason we're around because the brand started with them in the skate, surf and BMX communities. Obviously, we're very conscious of our wholesale business because our biggest selling point is our lifestyle. Those who aren't able to experience it firsthand can experience it in a regional-mall format across the US.

GlobeSt.com: What else do you have to consider when leasing space?

Hooks: We're working on our strategies. We're in the regional-mall business, so we're more in tune to that on a national level. What Irvine Co. does is interesting. They build residential, and they built residential units around their retail properties, which brings customers in—that's something we look for. We also analyze demographics, e-commerce sales and clustering of similar retail brands. The North Face targets a different consumer and market. We're growing the brand in Southern California. We did open a store in South Coast Plaza. Lucy is also in Orange County, and Timberland is expanding into Southern California.