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Real Estate - Commercial

Recent Changes At The Forum Include Expansions, New Store

By Cece Nunn, posted Oct 13, 2014
Recent changes at The Forum, an upscale shopping center on Military Cutoff Road, include Spectrum Art and Jewelry leasing more space to split into Spectrum Fine Jewelry and Spectrum Gallery. (Contributed photo)
Changes have made their way to The Forum in recent weeks.

Some shifts this summer and fall at the upscale shopping center involve three stores and a restaurant.

Spectrum Art and Jewelry, which has operated as a hybrid business offering both designer jewelry and fine art and crafts, leased additional space at The Forum to split into two separate spaces: Spectrum Fine Jewelry and Spectrum Gallery, which are now open.

The change “gives room for each aspect of the business to really come to life where before they were competing in one space,” said Taylor Baysden, marketing manager for Spectrum.

Isabella Grape Boutique, a store that sells formal designer gowns, moved from The Forum, 1125 Military Cutoff Road, to Building 7, Suite I at 311 Judges Road. The move allows Isabella Grape to expand upon additional facets of its business, including Second Time Dress; a warehouse-pricing program called VIP Buyers Club; and Isabella Grape Concierge Services, said Keith Augustyniak, the store’s vice president of Internet marketing.

Second Time Dress is Isabella Grape’s consignment division, allowing new and returning customers the chance to resell designer dresses they’ve worn one time and also allowing the store to offer dresses at lower prices. New dresses, which the boutique still sells, start at about $350 and go up, while the consignment dress prices average between $150 and $350, Augustyniak said. With Second Time Dress and the VIP Buyers Club, "I can roll the prices back 10 years," Augustyniak said.

Before the boutique moved from The Forum, Isabella Grape leased warehouse space at Judges Road in anticipation of the growth of Second Time Dress.

The store currently leases two units in the Judges Road complex that have a total of 2,500 square feet, and Isabella Grape's new storage area is set up to be versatile, with the potential to host fashion shows and other events in the future, Augustyniak said.

“We’ve made our business more efficient, and we’ve made it more efficient for our customers,” he said.

Another change coming to The Forum is a new store for Fleet Feet, a national running shoe retailer, that has leased 1,826 square feet between Taste the Olive & Cafe and Pembroke's restaurant, said Claude Arnold of Swain & Associates, the firm that used to own but now just manages The Forum.

Also at The Forum, Taste the Olive & Cafe has undergone changes this summer, and Epic Food Co., which features a menu highlighted by healthy options, is in the midst of an extension project in the shopping center.

Vacant units don’t stay vacant for long in The Forum, which was built from 1999 to 2002, said Andrew Fallis, property manager with Swain & Associates.

Swain & Associates sold the 105,000-square-foot center for $24.7 million to Dallas-based L&B Realty Advisors LLP last September.

“The Forum is very desirable,” Fallis said. “Ninety-five or so percent of the occupants at The Forum are local, and they’re local entrepreneurs. This is their livelihood, and they come in and they run their own shops…The merchants here are invested deeply in their concepts or their type of business, so they’re very emotionally attached to what they sell.”

For example, Spectrum’s owner and founder Star Sosa has lived in Wilmington for 17 years. Spectrum Gallery is holding a grand opening celebration from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16, which will be a fundraiser for ALS in honor of Chad Cunningham, late son of artist Anne Cunningham, and will feature live music and new work.

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