Piece de Resistance

You know a store has a specific market in mind when employees answer the phone not in English, nor in Spanish, but in a most Parisian-accented French.

"Pavillon Christofle, bonjour," says store owner

Susan Canipelle.

That sense of European elegance is exactly what shoppers expect at Christofle in Naples. The upscale tableware company, founded in France, has been around for 175 years. The Naples shop opened five years ago on Third Street South, offering high-quality silver flatware, Limoges porcelain table settings and similar luxuries.

But change is in the air for Canipelle and Christofle.

Canipelle is leaving her Third Street South location and moving to the Waterside Shops at Pelican Bay in north Naples. There, alongside Christofle, she'll also open an Hermès boutique.

"It's an exciting time," says Canipelle. "Hermès is very exclusive. There are only 12 shops in the United States."

Like Canipelle, dozens of other retailers, most new to the Naples area, are being lured to Waterside Shops. It's a transformation that will create a new luxury shopping destination and, quite possibly, change the face of retail across Collier County.

"I believe it will dramatically and positively impact the cachet of the entire area," says Mike Reagen, president of the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce.

No longer will Neapolitans and their neighbors around Southwest Florida need to travel to Boca Raton or New York City to find the biggest names in luxury goods. A veritable who's who of high-end retail has announced plans to bring to Waterside Shops their products, their reputation and the je ne sais quoi that comes with them.

Hermès, Burberry, Gucci and Tiffany & Co.

Nordstrom, Brooks Brothers, Anthropologie, Louis Vuitton and Cartier.

This list goes on, but the meaning is clear: In the world of retail, Naples has finally arrived.

"The names 'Naples' and 'Waterside' are now known with the international retail market," Canipelle says.

While other new shopping outlets in Collier are planned-including the Collection at Airport-Pulling Road and Vanderbilt Beach Road and the Mercato at Vanderbilt Beach and U.S. 41-so far, none has attracted the ultra top-of-the-line names as well as Waterside has.

ON THE MAP

The renaissance of Waterside Shops can be traced primarily to the vision of one man: Nathan Forbes, the managing partner of the Forbes Company. The Southfield, Mich., company develops and manages upscale regional shopping centers around the country and Florida, including the Mall at Millenia in Orlando and the Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens.

When the Forbes Company gets involved, the big names-the Tiffanys, the Nordstroms and the Cartiers-know what to expect.

"It took a comprehensive vision and a comprehensive plan to be put in place by a reputable developer that has had a track record with these stores," Forbes says.

Retail industry experts say that besides the involvement of Forbes, many high-end retailers are probably finding that the time is right for them to come to Naples. Many have already opened outlets in Florida's bigger cities, and Collier County, with its abundance of wealthy shoppers and skyrocketing growth, was a natural next step for them.

"Every retailer knows how many people in a certain income group they need to support themselves in a certain market," says Daniel Butler, vice president for merchandising and retail operations with the National Retail Federation in Washington, D.C. "They all do their demographic studies. They look at ages. They look at expendable income. They're looking for their ideal customer base."

Collier County-with the second highest per-capita income of any community in Florida, according to the county's Economic Development Council-is that ideal.

"The money is here and projections indicate more people with discretionary money will be coming here," says Reagen.

The ritzy new shops at Waterside are just part of the transformation there.

For months, visitors have been greeted by bulldozers, jackhammers and rebar aplenty-all crafting the rebirth of the 13-year-old Waterside Shops.

Everything from the tile on the walkways to the lamp fixtures overhead will be new. Ornamental scuppers will gush water into large ponds and streams that will gurgle past shoppers. Islands with benches will invite visitors to stop and rest and also provide areas for public events.

"We're creating a much more vibrant, synergistic environment, but in an intimate setting," Forbes says.

The site of the former Jacobson's department store, one of the mall's previous anchors, is being expanded from 62,000 square feet to nearly 80,000 square feet. This space will be divvied up among several new retailers. The remaining original anchor, Saks Fifth Avenue, is adding 20,000 square feet onto the front of the store for a total of approximately 67,000 square feet. Nordstrom is building a new 80,000-square-foot, two-level building, scheduled to open in fall 2007 or spring 2008.

The center is growing from about 45 stores in the old Waterside Shops to at least 65 in the new version, including two new restaurants-a Tuscany-themed grill and a new steakhouse. Many of the current tenants are also expanding or remodeling, including Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma and Chico's.

Regulars may also notice that some stores

have disappeared.

"We have weeded out some tenants whose leases were expiring, who didn't match up to the vision of where we wanted to take things," Forbes says.

WAL-MART EFFECT?

Although Naples shoppers are certainly enthusiastic about the new doors opening to them, fellow retailers in the area are more cautious.

The general thinking seems to fall into two camps. One side worries the Waterside Shops and their new tenants will pull customers away from other retail centers-sort of a "Wal-Mart effect," only with much bigger price tags.

The other theory is that the new, internationally known stores will just make Naples a more renowned shopping destination for all-kind of a "rising tide floats all boats" concept.

Debra Newman, executive director of the Fifth Avenue South Association, is hopeful. "I find all the future shopping opportunities very exciting," she says. "It indicates we are becoming a real city, moving away from a predominately seasonal community. The development will spur industries besides service to locate here, bringing a larger year-round base of residents."

Still, Newman and the more than 50 restaurants, art galleries, jewelry stores and other shops that make up Fifth Avenue South aren't taking any chances.

"We are being very proactive in doing what needs to be done to preserve our market share with our advertising, merchant mix and events that enhance our residents' and visitors' quality of life," she says.

Another longtime shopping area-Third Street South-also is watching the developments at Waterside Shops and elsewhere. While Canipelle and her Christofle store are leaving, others are confident that their unique and eclectic offerings, served up with a personal touch, will carry them through.

Sean Johnson Atelier is a home furnishings shop on Third Street. Despite seven successful years in Naples, employees know they'll have to step up their efforts to meet the increased competition.

"Whatever the client wants, we do," says Jerry Kraft, a manager at Sean Johnson. "Some things are beyond the usual, but we'll try to do it. That's going to create a sale for me and a repeat customer."

Indeed, this is exactly how many small retailer shops survive in a world full of chains, mergers and conglomerates. "The mom-and-pop stores really work to

develop their customer service so they have loyal customers," Butler says. "Small independents have a great opportunity to build loyalty through great customer service."

SERIES OF EVENTS

The new Waterside Shops will be unveiled in a series of grand openings likely stretching from 2006 into 2008. That represents a huge investment in Collier's retail industry, which in 2005 is expected to bring in more than $1.4 billion, according to General Growth Properties, one of the nation's largest retail property managers. That figure doesn't even include dining- and tourism-related sales.

Forbes is reticent to discuss financial details of the Waterside Shops. He'll only say it's a multimillion-dollar renovation. He offers no estimates as to how many new jobs will be created since stores do their own hiring, but it seems logical that more stores and more store space will mean more employees. In the past, the Waterside Shops have employed approximately 650 people in season.

Forbes also declines to talk rents because they're set on a store-by-store basis. Canipelle says they are comparable to rents in the Old Naples area downtown. Finally, Forbes sticks to generalities when it comes to sales figures for the Waterside Shops as a whole.

"We know from our track record that these stores, from a square-footage basis, trend way higher than the national averages of other types of retail shopping centers," Forbes says. "Their average sales are a lot higher than the type of stores that were at Waterside before."

Bottom line: it comes down to the customers. Tenants at the Waterside Shops hope the new look and new names will attract customers from Lee County as well as keep Collier clients closer to home.

"Clients searching for international luxury and very upscale retail will have a similar experience at Waterside to shopping in New York or Paris," Canipelle says.