Wednesday, May 21, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Convention benefits developer

Plethora of retail, restaurant chains boosts LV marketing opportunities

Commercial real estate developer Terri Sturm, president of Territory Inc., stands by the Red Robin restaurant under construction at Centennial Center. Red Robin is one of six restaurant sites being built in the giant retail center in the northwest valley. Photo by Clint Karlsen.

Terri Sturm has somewhat of a home-court advantage this week when it comes to finding restaurant tenants for the second phase of development at Centennial Center, the 900,000-square-foot retail power center off U.S. Highway 95 in the northwest valley.

With a booth at the International Council for Shopping Centers spring convention being held in Las Vegas, Sturm has immediate access to a network of decision-makers for major retailers and restaurant chains.

It provides her with a tremendous marketing opportunity to fill the remaining 100,000 square feet at Centennial Center, anchored by Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Sam's Club.

"It is THE trade organization for people in the shopping center business," said Sturm, president of Territory Inc., a 10-year developer of commercial real estate in Las Vegas. "It gives us a chance to showcase our property and to sit face-to-face with retailers, because most of the time you're on the phone with them in New York or somewhere."

Sturm has already landed a 7,000-square-foot Red Robin restaurant, which is under construction and scheduled to open in late June. It will be the third Red Robin in Las Vegas.

She also has Toronto-based Mike's restaurant chain, similar to Olive Garden, under contract for a large pad at Centennial Center.

That's two of the six restaurant sites taken. On her wanted list are Red Lobster, Outback Steakhouse, P.F. Chang's, perhaps Bertolini's.

"We'd love to get them. We're trying," she said.

Sturm and her business partner, Garry Goett, president of Olympia Land Corp., developed the 650,000-square-foot Eastern Beltway Center at Interstate 215 and Eastern Avenue and the smaller Eastgate Power Center at Sunset Road and Marks Street in Henderson.

Sturm said they closed on the $13 million financing for the second phase of Centennial Center two months ago, and have retired $35 million of the total $70 million construction cost of the center that opened in December 2000.

She's focused on creating a restaurant village for the 150,000 people who live in the trade area, roughly extending south to Cheyenne Avenue and east to Decatur Boulevard.

"We're not that far out, but there's not that many restaurants," Sturm said. "I live out there and in order to go to a good restaurant I've got to go to Summerlin and Sahara (Avenue) or Lake Mead (Boulevard)."

Territory Inc. has begun development of Centennial Gateway on 30 acres adjacent to Centennial Center, closer to Ann Road, with completion expected in late 2004 or early '05.

It's also working on Southern Highlands Marketplace, a supermarket-anchored neighborhood center planned for the master-planned Southern Highlands community, which was developed by Goett's Olympia Group.

Goett said he and Sturm will have more than 2 million square feet of retail by the end of the year. "Hopefully, that number will double over the next year," he said.

Centennial Center, built on 90 acres with easy freeway access, follows the "power" center design trend in urban areas, Sturm said.

They are typically open-air centers with free-standing stores, ample parking and often a restaurant component. Best of the West at Lake Mead and Rainbow boulevards and Boca Park at Rampart and Charleston boulevards are good examples.

"People are time-stressed and they like to shop at places closer to them," Sturm said. "There are places for malls and new malls are coming to town, one in Summerlin and I predict a new site down south along I-15."