We’ve heard from a reliable birdie that the former Hardware Store location is being converted to an Urban Outfitters. It makes sense given the store’s size and the standard size of U.O. shops.
If you recall, one of our other birdies told us in September that a clothing store was in the mix for a possible lease of the once famous restaurant. This does conflict with the rumor that the X-Lounge people were behind something.
We think this rumor has some wings and it looks like the cat is finally out of the bag. Thank you birdie! I’m sure mall people are not happy about this.
Update from danpri…possibly not finalized, due to a lack of official inking.
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Tagged as: Charlottesville, hardware store, lease, Retail, rumor, Shop, Store, urban outfitters
That’s amazing since chain’s have a horrible record on the mall.
this chain will work. It makes sense.
/hello hipsters!
That should just about kill Mazi’s, who still have 4 years left on a lease that goes over 1K/month.
I personally think this is an awesome fit. Kudos to Octagon Partners.
do you wear sunglasses with shutters, or lyrca sleeves that simulate arm tattoos? you do? kill yourself.
haha just kidding! fashion trends are great.
Heheh another overpriced trendy store
I am sure the university kids will love it though.
Death to all chain stores. It will probably help Mazi’s though, by convincing such types to bother to park downtown. Might even help Young Mens. Clothing foot traffic on the mall looks to be about 1/20 of booze traffic right now.
It’s like the movie theater & ice rink on the other end. Overnight that place turned the west end of the Mall into middle school on weekend nights.
I don’t know that Mazi’s will suffer in the deal. I agree with colfer that it will help increase foot traffic and business. That’s why you see AE, Banana, A&F and Express all in the same place all the time. Smaller retail stores drive each other. Competition, in this case, should be beneficial.
I hope you are correct on Mazi’s. But the couple high end places along those lines (another one just off themall by Zocolo’s?) hang by the skin of their teeth. Rents brutal. The preteen to 25 club are notoriously fickle. But true too is the fact that bringing bodies down to shop will bring bodies down to shop everywhere, espcially that target market. When I go shopping I grab the 34* 36 pants that I like, size 13 shoes I like, and walk by the changing room to the registers.
When I have to take my wife and daughters they always make sure its someplace with beer and TV. We can go to Tysons and I roll into Gordon Biersch’s because they hit every store and try on 80 things. Short pump is fine….Capitol Ale House just a bit down the road etc.
Ugh, fuck urban outfitters, blah…
i don’t so much mind Urban Outfitters, I’ve picked up some fun gifts for people (and junk for myself) there before. now the people that i see at UO, on the other hand…
/Vegas one was best, Houston 2nd…don’t even ask about the one in Philthy, PA
i spent hours at an urban outfitters one time because the mall got electricity back before we did after a hurricane & after a week, we were sick of sitting in the dark drinking warm rum.
& their “sex tips for straight women from a gay man” was very helpful to me ten years ago.
& anything is an improvement over the hardware store. “where stupid tourists ate because it was cheaper than any of the good restaurants in the vicinity.”
Are they going to put a Hot Topic in the new luxury hotel too?
@9 - ooh, you wear 34 36 pants, too
and @14, do you not know any goth 16 year olds???
@13 THIS
so - everybody goes to sleep early on Sunday?
watta ya, restin your livers or what?
I have heard that the new UO is adopting Nostalgia Marketing, and hence will be using the the original Hardware Store customer service model. You wait 15 minutes for a fitting room, even though they are all empty. Then when you do decide you want to buy something, there is no one at the register because they are all out ‘the back’ talking. Finally after waiting 45 minutes you get to pay, only to find when you get home that instead of a size 4 satin camisole and a pair of flip flops you have been given a bag containing a tie-dye mumu and an army surplus winter coat. But you just wear it because you are so beaten up that you can’t fight any more.
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/articles/5725/cover-story
After I read this article a few years ago, it became really difficult to buy anything at UO.
Is it good or bad that I’ve never even heard of Urban Outfitters?
Can’t imagine ever needing or wanting to shop there.
So I hear that nothing is signed although it has been in discussion for a year or so.
@15 getting tougher! Older I get the closer it will be to reversing that sizing.
That’s the only place on the mall where I would actually buy clothing. Too bad they took out those beautiful lamps over the door. I wonder how much of the art nouveau type design will be removed as well. And thanks for calling me reliable. When are you going to post that juicy Escafé gossip?
As if kids don’t dress like ragamuffins already!
I bet there are going to be complaints about how loud their music is when they open. If they’re anything like some of the other teen chains, the music and volume are dictated by corporate and they aren’t going to like being told to turn it down.
Them damn whippersnappers. Rapscallions.
Love the work rapscallion. Is that what Snoop Dogg uses when he cooks chili and sings?
No that’s a scallywag.
@28 OH that’s good…what happens when you use both a scallywag and a rapscallion in one dish?
You get a lacy scrapple wagon.
OH this reminds me - I visited a bar last week that had a hot topic INSIDE. yeah buddy. talk about merging.
I spoke to someone today in the know about this rumor, someone involved in the renovation process, and they told me this was no longer true, they said it ain’t happening.
Our office spaces are on the third and fourth floor of the building… as far as we are aware… urban outfitters will be one of the other tenants of the building.
34: thanks for keeping hope alive. they sell super soft t-shirts and my favorite one just got a hole in it. I’m still wearing it today, though.
@35 Erh guilt trip, thank you, sorry. Hey where is that hole anyway, do I want to know, we want to know…
it’s near my bellybutton. People: do not try to clean off glasses with your soft soft t-shirt. You will put a hole in it.
I was hoping it was near your nipple, that would have been totally rad, and attention getting. Erh and people: don’t wear glasses, the world is much more approchable and friendly when it is a little fuzzy. And if you need to clean your goggles please use mc’s soft soft tshirt that already have a hole in it.
@13 it wasn’t even cheaper than some of the good restaurants on the mall. Their shitty sandwiches with chips were like $10.
The only thing about that place that was even remotely cool was that you could get a YARD of beer. Shitty beer, but a fucking YARD.
so…no wood fired oven, carnivore loving steak house that the X Lounge gang were planning?? i can get clothes on the interwebby, not fire roasted ribeye!!!
….wimper…
gee - chip on shoulder much???
I found the above linked philadelphia weekly article to be pretty poor- unnecessarily negative with little substance, but Urban Outfitters is known to ripoff smaller designers which is enough to make one reconsider shopping there:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/evil/urban-outfitters-rips-designers-cupcake-tshirt-149095.php
http://urbncounterfeiters.blogspot.com/
Ikea and H&M do the same thing and nothing could keep me from shopping at those stores.
That’s not cool they rip off Johnny Cupcakes, that guy’s a small upstart from my back home-ish area.
Perhaps some sort of cupcake oriented protest targeting the opening? It has potential.
We ought to team up with Cappellino’s. A few baskets fulla day olds and a water balloon slingshot would do the job right.
GAHH! That idea sounds horrifying. I’m going to show up to protest your cupcake protest. Cupcakes should never be treated in such a manner.
I am holding an official meeting of the newly formed ‘Cupcake Liberation Idealists Targeting Outrageous Rip-offs in Society’. Email me for directions.
I came back just to bathe in your sarcasm, Flooze. It feels good. The safety word is ‘topsy tail’.
I’ll be there.
Email me for directions.
Are you saying men cant find the C.L.I.T.O.R.I.S.?
ummmm.