Status Update: Zara

The new Zara store on Michigan Avenue is almost ready for opening.  The scaffolding and shroud have been taken down and the corner boasts a new sign.  The official opening is October 30, 2009.

Progress Report: Zara at Chicago Place

I first encountered Zara one rainy day near the opera house in Paris.  It was the only store open, and I popped in to keep from getting soaked.  It was then that my wife fell in love... with the store.

The Spanish store feating quality clothing at low low prices is making progress with its new store on the Magnificent Mile.  Construction barricades have been up for a few months, but recently a two-story screen featuring promotional photos and the ever-tempting phrase "coming soon."

Zara is gong in at the space formerly occupied by Tabott's back when Chicago Place was an actual mall and not just a hollow shell supporting a food court.

It also has an e-mail address for anyone who wants to be one of its shopgirls.  If there's an employee discount, I know some people who would be interested.

Update: Zara, Victoria, Ritz

Scaffolds and wooden storefronts are popping up aplenty along Michigan Avenue.  In the photo above you can see workers putting together the temporary facade for Zara's new store to open in what was once the Chicago Place mall.

A block away, demolition is complete at the location of what will become the Ritz-Carlton residences, so that means pedestrian access has been restored to the west side of the Boul Mich.

And a block in the other direction, a massive wooden edifice has been erected while workers put together the new Victoria's Secret store.  Peeking behind the barricade, it looks like they've still got a long way to go.

Endgame: Talbot's Out at Chicago Place

After months of speculation and even a lawsuit, Talbot's has finally been forced out of Chicago Place.  That leaves the food court and Saks Fifth Avenue as the only operating concerns in the retail portion of what was once a vibrant vertical mall at the center of the Magnificent Mile.

Now, it's mostly abandoned.  The heat's turned off in the public areas.  The escalators have been turned off, too.  According to the Sun-Times, there's just one public elevator for accessing the food court.  The place is downright creepy.

But with the exit of Talbot's comes hope for something new.  In numerous published reports it was detailed that the owners of Chicago Place wanted to use the Talbot's space for a new Zara store.  That can happen now that the space is vacant.

But it seems strange to us that Zara would even want to be in Chicago Place.  The owner of Zara owns the block next door on Michigan Avenue -- the one with the Peninsula Hotel and the Pottery Barn that's becoming yet another Victoria's Secret.

So why would he want to pay rent to Chicago Place when there is tons of vacant retail space on the block that he owns?  Our hope is that he has a big deal in the works to fill the vacant space that was once American Girl Place and CompUSA.  We hope.

As an aside, the Zara guy took a $200 million mortgage on the Peninsula block just a couple of weeks ago, according to Crain's.  We don't know if that's significant or not.  We're not real estate "experts" and even those who claim to be don't seem to know what's going on in this economy.