DOWNTOWN — Add a half dozen more names to the growing list of tenants at the new Santa Monica Place.
Macerich on Wednesday announced a line-up of six new retailers that will occupy the first and second floors of the renovated mall, including a local clothing designer who will open her first store.
The list includes Hugo Boss, which specializes in tailored men’s clothing; Juicy Couture, which sells women’s clothing and accessories; 7 for All Mankind, a premium jeans retailer; AllSaints Spitalfields, a trendy British clothing brand; Solstice Sunglass Boutique; and Eva Varro, a Santa Monica resident whose label is sold in local boutiques and department stores.
“I think in keeping with our theme of balanced offerings and kind of that whole high-low aspect that is now more in vogue, I think all of these satisfy that,” Anne Singleton, the vice president of leasing for Macerich, said. “You got some very well recognized names and some that are new to both retail and to Santa Monica.”
Despite a series of tenant announcements over the past year, the mall, which is scheduled to open on Aug. 6, 2010, is not 100 percent leased. Singleton said more announcements are expected in the coming months.
Macerich most recently announced a lineup of fast food tenants for its rooftop dining deck, including Sarku Japan, Chick n’ Ribs and Manchu Wok.
Singleton said most of the restaurants are schedule to begin construction after the first of the year.
Opening her first store after starting a clothing label in 2002 is Varro, whose tops and tunics have been sold at local boutiques on Montana Avenue, Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s.
The native Hungarian moved to the United States with her husband Calin Senciac in 1999, working as a fashion designer for a company in Sun Valley. She started her own line three years later out of her home in the Wilshire-Montana neighborhood, using the living room as the showroom.
The brand has since grown to be carried in more than 300 boutiques in North America. Varro’s designs are also featured in “Desperate Housewives” and various awards shows, including the Golden Globes. The couple today lives in Ocean Park and manufactures clothing out of the company’s Vernon office.
Senciac said that the mall was seen as a natural fit for the company’s first retail store.
“We were excited to get a location that has maximum potential,” he said.
The Frank Gehry-designed mall opened in the 1980s and at its prime served as a thriving partner to the Third Street Promenade. Macerich, one of the largest developers of shopping malls in the country, originally proposed developing an office complex that included retail space and residential units but abandoned those plans because of community opposition. The mall will instead be reinvented, featuring an open-air design with a rooftop dining deck boasting views of the ocean.
The mall will be anchored by Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s. Tenants who have already signed on include Burberry, Michael Kors, Coach and Ed Hardy.
