GlobeSt.com
By Jennifer Duell Popovec
LIVINGSTON, TX-Baskins Western Wear has plans to open eight new stores in the Lone Star State over the next 18 months.
With the addition of the new stores, the western apparel retailer, headquartered in Northeast Texas, will have 24 locations across the state. Each new store will range from 15,000 square feet to more than 20,000 square feet.
The apparel retailer recently inked four leases for stores in Lufkin, Texarkana, Corpus Christi, and Waco and is looking for four more locations, according to Austin McWilliams, an associate with SRS Real Estate Partners in Austin, TX. He and Mike Minicucci, who is also located in SRS Real Estate Partners’ Austin office, represented the retailer in the lease transactions.
McWilliams tells GlobeSt. that Baskins Western Wear has received an influx of capital from a private equity group, which allows the retailer to expand. Additionally, the value-oriented retailer is eager to take advantage of current market conditions, particularly those create by defunct big box retailers such as Circuit City.
“Baskins has taken aggressive stance to get into these shopping centers that have been a little out of their reach,” McWilliams says. “It’s an excellent time to do it. Landlords have been very happy to welcome a large junior anchor to their centers.”
To date, the Livingston, TX-based retailer has focused its expansion efforts on small, rural town that attract shoppers from a large trade area. “The evolution of the concept is to expand into tertiary markets with a larger population base and then eventually move into suburban markets in larger metro areas,” McWilliams says.
In Lufkin, Baskins leased 22,568 square feet in The Lufkin Mall. That store, which backfills an empty Circuit City, is already open.
The 15,000-square-foot Texarkana store is located at Richmond Ranch, a Target-anchored center. The build-to-suit store is scheduled to open in early 2011.
In Corpus Christi, Baskins will open a 20,000-square-foot store at The Promenade, a Babies’R’Us shadow-anchored center. Located in a former Cavender’s Boot City store, it will welcome customers in late 2010.
The Waco store, at the intersection of Franklin Avenue at New Road in Waco Centre, will occupy 15,030 square feet of a former big box retail space. It is expected to open in early 2011.
“We did a full market overview of the entire state, and based on their demographic needs, we came up with potential expansion markets,” McWilliams says. “There are several cities on the list, but the growth is not only focused on the markets that represent Baskins’ demographics, but also the ones that fit the company’s operations [for distribution and management].”