got Thursday morning with the grand reopening of H&M’s flagship store on the 16th Street Mall.
The Swedish fast-fashion retailer unveiled its expanded 31,000-square-foot Denver Pavilions store, fresh with a new, third floor of shopping and the brand’s exclusive .
The Denver store is just the sixth in the nation to carry the H&M Home line, which features bedroom, bath, kitchen and other household accessories, according to an H&M spokesman.
“We are in terrific company,” said Mark Sidell, president of Pavilions’ owner, Gart Properties. “There are two of these stores in our biggest city, New York, there’s one on Boston’s Newbury Street and there’s one in the Georgetown neighborhood of D.C. These are retail gems — to be in that category is really a special thing.”
The other H&M Home store is in New Orleans’ French Quarter.
“H&M always looks to choose the best locations for departments and lines in order to meet the needs of our customers,” company spokesman Patrick Shaner said.
Pavilions officials, for their part, have hoped H&M would expand to the shopping center’s third floor ever since it convinced the retailer in 2011 to take over the former Niketown space for , Sidell said.
“In the beginning, we talked to them about taking the entire space,” he said.
The 10,000-square-foot expansion cements the store’s status as Denver’s H&M flagship, he said.
H&M is now the Pavilions’ second-largest retailer in terms of square footage, trailing only Forever 21’s 32,000 square feet. It is also the first retailer to operate on all three stories of the Pavilions. (When Niketown leased the space, only the lower two levels were open to the public.)
“It’s consistent with their vision from the beginning, a vision we embrace, that the place to locate your flagship store in Colorado is in downtown Denver,” Sidell said. “It’s their highest sales volume and best-performing store in the market.”
H&M Home is the latest in a series of first-to-market scores for the downtown shopping center.
it would close at the end of the year, paving the way for to open its first store in Colorado — and second U.S. location outside the coasts — in 2016.
In September, to the long-vacant Virgin Megastore storefront, only the second Henry’s outside the Pacific Northwest.
That H&M chose the Pavilions for its Home collection speaks volumes to Downtown Denver Partnership CEO Tami Door said.
Since 2010, more than 5,500 new residential units have been built or are under construction in the downtown area, according to the partnership.
“Twenty-five percent of downtown residents do not own a car,” Door said. “Having access to a home collection near your place of residence when you don’t have a car is incredibly valuable.”
H&M’s investment should also serve as a “great economic development message,” she said.
“There’s absolutely an opportunity there for more home-goods retailers,” Door said. “With the growing number of residents, that market is going to increase. Downtown residents and center-city residents definitely have the income levels to support a home-goods retailer.”
Emilie Rusch: 303-954-2457, erusch@denverpost.com or @emilierusch
