DATE: Saturday, April 26, 1997              TAG: 9704260273

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEPHANIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   44 lines

MACARTHUR CENTER DEVELOPER SEES NO RUSH TO FIND 3RD ANCHOR

The developer of MacArthur Center, the upscale mall being built in downtown Norfolk, said Friday that he has no pressing need to immediately enlist a third anchor.

``Candidly, we're not in a hurry to put a department store in that anchor position,'' said John Simon, senior vice president of development for The Taubman Co., the Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based developer.

Taubman has signed on Nordstrom and Dillard's.

Dillard's plans to open a 260,000-square-foot store that will be about twice the size of any current department store in Hampton Roads.

For the third spot, the developer would like to find a retailer that's new to the area and exclusive to MacArthur Center, a three-story mall scheduled to open in March 1999. But there are no promises that this will happen.

Simon, who spoke Friday at a real estate conference in Virginia Beach, said his company has been known to be wait up to two years to find an anchoring retailer that meshes with a mall's character.

``We're a bit eccentric about our leasing,'' he said.

The developer's people have talked to several department-store companies, including Saks Fifth Avenue, The May Co. (owner of Hecht's and Lord & Taylor) and Belk, real estate and retail sources said.

But until the ink dries on the leases, Simon won't comment on Taubman's prospects for the third anchor position.

In other news, Tauman is in final negotiations with a company that wants to build a large theater inside the shopping center, real estate sources said.

``I can confirm that we are definitely going to put theaters in the mall,'' Simon said. ``I can't confirm the name.''

Simon spoke to commercial real estate brokers, economic development officials and developers at an International Council of Shopping Centers conference held at the new Cavalier Hotel. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH/The

Virginian-Pilot

John Simon is senior vice president of development for The Taubman

Co., the Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based developer of MacArthur Center

in downtown Norfolk. KEYWORDS: MACARTHUR CENTER

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