Full crowd for partial opening

Hundreds of people lined up outside the Apple store in Town Square Las Vegas, a $750 million, 1.5 million-square-foot lifestyle shopping center that opened Wednesday on Las Vegas Boulevard.

The new Apple store is bigger than the one in Fashion Show mall, plus it was giving away T-shirts.

Jeannette Shanks, resident of the nearby Anthem community, was doing some early Christmas shopping for her daughter, who'd told her about a waterproof iPod speaker holder she saw at the pool.

"I think it's beautiful," Shanks said of the latest evolution in Las Vegas' retail market. "I wanted to see what kind of stores are here, plus some different restaurants because we enjoy going out to eat. We're disappointed more restaurants aren't open."

Only three of the 13 restaurants are opening with the shopping center, and the wait to get into Claim Jumper for lunch was reportedly an hour. Louis's Fish Camp was scheduled to open later in the day and Louis's Las Vegas should be open by Friday, owner and chef Louis Osteen said as he supervised work on the interior of his 70-seat restaurant.

Balcony dining at Louis's Las Vegas overlooks the heart of Town Square, where a life-size Santa Claus house and giant Christmas tree have been set up near the children's park.

Todd Freers came from Summerlin to check out the Apple store and the 18-screen Rave Motion Picture complex, which was opening in the evening with a 3-D showing of "Beowulf" starring Angelina Jolie.

Freers, who goes to half a dozen movies or more a month, said he's "absolutely coming back" to Town Square.

"For me, there's certain places I will go. It depends on what I want to watch. I was going to see 'Beowulf' at Imax, but the picture quality of DLP (Digital Light Processing) is better," he said.

Rave will be showing some of last summer's movies for free today with $1 popcorn and soda, an usher for the theater said as he handed out schedules to patrons. Among the movies are "Spider-Man 3," "Transformers," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," "Underdog" and "The Simpsons Movie."

"I think this place will do well," Freers said. "I think this is going to be a destination place. It's a good location. The only problem with this area is parking and access. When you come here at night, the traffic. ... I think the ramp is going to help."

Florida-based developer Turnberry Associates spent $5 million to build a flyover ramp from northbound Las Vegas Boulevard onto the road that loops around Town Square. The shopping center has two garages and surface parking to accommodate 5,800 cars.

Joe Tagliola, president of Turnberry's retail division, said he was hearing good comments about the project, especially the children's park, a rare amenity at shopping centers around the country.

He expects daily foot traffic of 20,000 to 25,000 in the first week with crowds picking up on Friday afternoon and throughout the weekend.

"It's surpassed people's expectations and in service-oriented business today, it's very hard to surpass expectations," Tagliola said. "We'd like more stores open for variety. Word-of-mouth has been fantastic."

Town Square will provide 4,000 to 4,500 retail jobs and 3,000 office jobs when complete, he said.

Sierra Vista High School senior Amber Galloway was applying for a job at Zumies apparel store. She said she knows clothes and wants to work in retail.

"They should have a lot of job opportunities 'cause it just opened," she said. "They were talking about it at school. We read about it in the newspaper in government class."

Laura Perez said she didn't mind driving 15 minutes from Henderson to Town Square with her two children.

"It reminds me of Rodeo Drive, kind of," the California native said. "It's so new and clean and there's a lot of security."

With pop music blaring from outside speakers, the 28,000-square-foot H&M store was bringing in the 28- to 40-year-old customer looking for hip, brand clothing. Lisa Sandberg of H&M estimated a line of 500 people waiting to get into the store when it opened.

About half of the 150 stores at Town Square should be open by the weekend, with more coming on line in the next two to three months, Tagliola said.

Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0491.