Business torrents

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Urban Outfitters Inc. is targeting the heart of Memphis for one of its name-brand stores.

The Philadelphia-based retail company, which operates the Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People and Terrain store brands, is negotiating to lease a former antique mall building at the northeast corner of Central and Cooper, according to numerous real estate sources.

The property at 742 S.Cooper is 13,816 square feet, according to the Shelby County Assessor of Property website.

Antique Mall of Midtown Inc. owns the building, which was constructed in 1935. The building’s owner, Charlie Ryan, did not return repeated calls for comment.

Wade McDevitt is chief executive officer of The McDevitt Co., a tenant representation firm that handles leasing for Urban Outfitters internationally.

McDevitt would not comment on where Urban Outfitters might lease space in Memphis, but says “Memphis continues to be a market of interest to Urban Outfitters as a brand.”

The company also considered Highland Row, a mixed-use development Memphis-based developer Poag & McEwen is planning to build near the University of Memphis campus by 2012.

“I think they would do great at either Highland Row or Cooper and Central,” John Reed, a retail broker with the Shopping Center Group LLC, says. “If they choose Cooper and Central, perhaps it’s because they don’t want to wait for new construction. New development construction is stalled in markets all over the country with the state of the economy.”

The building at Cooper and Central has been recently renovated and has a nice look to it, according to Reed.

“It’s obviously ready to be occupied,” he says.

This would be the second Urban Outfitters-branded store in the state. Urban Outfitters opened a 12,000-square-foot store in The Gulch, a trendy part of Nashville, in 2009. It opened a 9,000-square-foot Anthropologie store at The Shops of Saddle Creek in March.

In the first six months of 2010, Urban Outfitters opened 16 new stores: five Urban Outfitters stores, eight Anthropologie stores and three Free People stores.

The company had 160 Urban Outfitters locations in the U.S., Canada and Europe, according to its second quarter financial report.

Urban Outfitters also reported $552 million in second quarter 2010 sales, up 20.3 percent compared to $458.6 million second quarter 2009.

“The trend for the last two years has been that every major discount retailer is making hay while the sun shines,” Reed says. “When you start seeing non-discount retailers coming into the market, like Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie, I think they’re taking advantage of historically low market rents. They can lock in long-term leases without having to compete against other retailers in their class.”

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