[Lenox Square/Phipps Plaza]

IMO, that would be kind of dumb to switch the stores around. They wouldn't like that because it's extremely annoying, and Neiman Marcus would absolutely hate it, maybe enough to move elsewhere. Lenox simply makes more money than Phipps and is just better IMO. I went to Lenox at 3 on a Saturday and it was very crowded. Then I went across the street to Phipps Plaza and it was almost completely empty. Also, the stores at Lenox are a lot larger than the corresponding stores at Phipps (Nordstrom is half the size of Bloomingdale's, Saks is smaller than Neiman Marcus even before the expansion, and Macy's is about 3 times larger than Belk. The only thing that I like about Phipps better than Lenox is their food court. It hardly has anything, but it is nicer looking. You guys are too snobbish and annoying. I mean I understand with Belk at Phipps, it does suck. But if Belk was like the one at SouthPark, it would be fine. It is very similar to the Nordstrom at SouthPark, but with some cheaper brands as well.

Neiman Marcus could most likely care less, because they were at Lenox long before those the high-end stores around them were. It's not that Lenox or Phipps is better than the other, it's just that they have different clientele foci. Phipps markets itself towards a more, very wealthy, adult crowd, while Lenox markets itself towards a younger crowd. Their stores aren't even correspondent, so I don't know what that was about. And it isn't that Belk is a crappy department store, it's just that it is a mid-scale department store that doesn't go along with the super-luxury high-end atmosphere of Phipps.

[Lenox Square/Phipps Plaza]

Well one thing is for sure. Phipps Plaza won't be hurting for any jewelry boutiques. They certainly have plenty to choose from.

My only concern is the fact that Phipps Plaza was designed to be a luxury mall, and that is what Corporate City Investors were trying to do before Simon bought the mall.

Now you see boutiques like Bulgari, Fendi, Cartier, Salvator Ferragamo, Faconnable, 7 For All Mankind and others calling Lenox Square home.

Plus you have this terrible mix of tenants like Coldwater Creek, J.Jill, Justice and others that should be assigned to the Belk wing.

They should turn the second level between Saks and Nordstrom into another luxury wing. Just shuffle some stores around and then the mall will have room to court luxury retailers like I mentioned above.

And the last problem with Simon running Phipps Plaza is all of the overlapping stores that are also in Lenox Square such as Landau Jewelers, Bebe, Ann Taylor, Brookstone, Williams-Sonoma, and Mori Luggage.

Maybe Simon should consider getting a new Marketing Director to steer the mall on the course that it was origionally intended for. And I don't even have the energy to post anything about Belk since it has been debated so much on this forum.

I totally agree. And what is up with Lenox getting all of the luxury high-end retailers like Fendi? Since Simon owns them both now, I think that they should, first, rebrand Phipps into the super-luxury shopping destination it was built for, and, second, ask the high-end retailers at Lenox and the mid-scale stuff that Simon allowed in Phipps to do a little switching around i.e. Bvlgari, Burberry, Ralph Lauren, Faconnable, 7 for all mankind, and Ermengildo Zenga at Lenox with Justice and all the other "tween" and children's clothing stores at Phipps.

Don't even get me started on Belk. I think that the Marketing Exec. of Phipps needs to get Belk to go away, and somehow convince the executives of Bergdorf Goodman to create their first branch location