When fast-fashion retailer H&M opened its first Colorado location on Denver’s 16th Street Mall in 2011, more than 900 people lined up for its grand opening.
Target is set to open its long-in-the-works store on the mall at 8 a.m. Sunday. The first 1,000 shoppers get a free reusable bag.
It remains to be seen if that event will generate the same kind of fervor H&M did. After all, Target is well known in Colorado, having operated stores here for decades. It’s got brand recognition but isn’t trendy or new like its Scandinavian counterpart.
Regardless of how many people line up before the new store’s doors are flung open at 1600 California St., downtown business advocates are ecstatic over its arrival and what it says about the economic vitality of a portion of Denver sporting a retail vacancy rate of 3.3. percent.
“When Target chooses to locate somewhere they are sending a message that the customer base is there,” Downtown Denver Partnership CEO Tami Door said Monday. “This shows this brand has identified the center city of Denver — and it sends this message to other brands — as a place where they believe they will be successful.”
The 16th Street Mall store won’t be just any Target. At 30,000 square feet, it’s less than quarter the size of the retailer’s average store. It will feature a curated collection of goods designed to appeal to downtown shoppers, Ashlee Justis, the store’s team lead, said.
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On its main floor, the second floor of the 1600 California St. building, shoppers will find clothes and accessories — including Broncos and other local team gear — and an electronics and entertainment department complete with cellphones that can be activated on the spot. There will be a grocery section with fresh produce and frozen goods, as well as grab-and-go items such as sandwiches, meant to cater to customers popping in and out on their lunch breaks.
Floor two will carry cosmetics and personal care products and travel goods — again catering to a specific downtown market segment: tourists. There will also be an assortment of home wares and decor, a category H&M added to its 16th Street Mall store in 2015.
“Why this is going to be so exciting, especially for the downtown Denver guest, is this store is created especially for them,” Justis said. “It’s going to be a quick, convenient spot to get those products you have relied on Target for traditionally.”
Doubling down on the convenience, the store will have a CVS pharmacy and self-checkout kiosks. It will also serve as the order pickup point for people who buy from Target.com, company officials say. Place an order on the website, and within an hour that item will be ready at the store.
The store is an example of Target’s real estate evolution. After going from big to jumbo in the form of its Super Target store formats, the company is now going small. When the 16th Street Mall store opens it will be one of 71 small format stores the retailer has opened across the country. Meant to fit in denser urban centers or near college campuses, the smaller footprint allows Target close places it hasn’t been before, such as downtown Denver, company spokeswoman Jacqueline DeBuse said.
“We’ve always been interested in the (downtown) Denver community,” DeBuse said. “We know there are daytime professionals and round-the-clock residents.”
DeBuse’s reference to round-the-clock residents offers a potential clue as to why it has taken Target so long to hit its mark downtown. The Downtown Denver Partnership’s CEO Door said her organization has been working on bringing the brand to the city’s urban core for decades. Every time an opportunity came up, some factor dragged it down, whether the location or property owner wasn’t the right fit, or Target not being in an expansion mode at the time, or the demographics not being strong enough.
“When you’re working to attract a retail location, everything has to be right,” she said.
In downtown Denver today — defined by the partnership as the area made up of the Auraria, Lower Downtown, Ballpark, Central Platte Valley, Golden Triangle and Center Business District neighborhoods — more people are working, visiting and living than ever before. Randy Thelen, the partnership’s vice president of economic development, said 23,000 people live downtown, three times as many as 2000. The area’s 136,000 employees is an all-time high. Add that in with a $4 million tax incentive package from the Denver City Council, and the “Why now, Target?” question answers itself.
