It is the night of the opening benefit gala for the redesigned Nordstrom at Westfield Topanga, and the 1,600 guests have descended on the new store, scooping up $300 pairs of shoes, $1,500 handbags and designer labels with mid-four digit price tags. A funny thing has happened here in Canoga Park some 25 years after the first Valley girl rode into popular culture. There is nary a pastel in sight, and the redesigned Nordstrom store, at 200,000 square feet, is one of the biggest the chain has to offer, filled with designer labels that even Nordstrom has not carried before in any of its stores. Elsewhere in the newly remodeled mall too there are the kinds of brand names and products that until now have only been available on the other side of the hill. A population increase, rising affluence and a geography that makes it harder than ever to travel to the Westside to shop has remade the Valley’s demographics, creating a demand for goods of all kinds, but especially luxury brands hardly imagined a decade ago. “We’ve been seeing this change coming for the last 10 years and that’s why we invested so heavily in the Valley,” said Peter Lowy, CEO of the Westfield Group. The company’s research shows that the population has increased 13 percent since 1994 and average household income has risen about 40 percent to $94,000. Westfield bought the Topanga center weeks after the Northridge earthquake in 1994 for $154 million, and when the current expansion is complete, the Australian shopping center owner and operator with assets of more than $42 billion will have spent another $350 million to expand and renovate it, an expense that will likely do more than boost revenues for the company. With it, Westfield will likely have cornered the market for luxury goods in the Valley. “The whole premise of the company as an operating company is to buy malls and spend capital and penetrate the market to a greater extent than it did before,” said Lowy. ” By having the only Neimans and this Nordstrom we expand the market with a much broader reach than it had.” New entries While the remodeled mall, which opened on Oct. 6, houses many of the stores that have long been popular among Valleyites Target, Aeropostale, Coldwater Creek and Nine West among them there will also be a wide assortment of shops with style and prices that have never been part of the Valley’s retail mix, including Furla, Cole Haan, Miss Sixty, Movado and Burberry. Neiman Marcus, which will open in 2008, chose the location after shopping a number of different sites, some with far tonier addresses than Canoga Park. The Topanga store will be the retailer’s only L.A. location outside Beverly Hills. But perhaps nowhere is the recognition of the demand for luxury goods and services more apparent than in the decision by Nordstrom to opt for a flagship Southern California store at the mall. With the opening of its new, three-story store adjacent to the indoor mall, Nordstrom added about 60,000 square feet of selling space and another 200 employees for a total of 800 workers at the new store. In the additional space, the retailer has added boutiques for Chanel, Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana and the store’s first Gucci boutique, along with collections from Chloe, Badgley Mischka, Robert Cavalli, Vera Wang, Doo.ri, Prada Denim and others, a collection the company called “our strongest comprehensive collection of designer merchandise.” There are five shoe departments featuring lines from Christian Louboutin, Jimmy Choo and Manolo Blahnik among others; handbag boutiques featuring Dior, Chanel and Gucci and additional cosmetics lines from Jo Malone, Armani and Shu Uemura. The men’s department carries 3,500 dress shirts in 63 sizes and 2,500 ties. There is a sink in the men’s grooming boutique for trying out shaving lotions, a women’s dressing room appointed in luxurious velvets and natural woods and a day spa. “We’re very confident that the market is really perfect for having the best,” Said Erik Nordstrom, a fourth generation member of the founding family who is president of stores. “Whatever the merchandise category is, I do think that area had been underestimated or maybe not as well understood. As we were negotiating with vendors, people didn’t really know Topanga. They hadn’t been there.” Top performer In the 22 years that Nordstrom has operated at Topanga it has been among the top performing stores in the chain, and the company has collected a wealth of information about its customers, Nordstrom said, instilling confidence in the upgrade. “Usually we’re opening stores in a new market,” Nordstrom said. “You can do some research, but the information isn’t as solid as if you have actual sales results. Having that base, we don’t have a shred of doubt this is the right direction to go into.” The nod of approval from Nordstrom and Neimans also helped to attract the other upscale retailers that have signed on, Lowy said. One such retailer, Sony Style, chose the location as its only other L.A. site in addition to Beverly Center. The store, which is meant to showcase Sony’s most current offerings, features many of the products in room settings which are changed seasonally using the latest color palettes. A concierge greets visitors and helps them to find what they are looking for, and there are classes held on everything from how to download digital music to how to edit video footage. Sony Style picks mall locations to cater to its largely female target audience, but the mix of stores didn’t hurt either. “That mall is going to have a Neimans and a Target,” said Marcy Cohen, a spokeswoman for Sony Style. “Between that and the demographics that mall appeals to, the combination made the decision.”
