CARTIER MOVING HOUSTON UNIT FROM PAVILION TO GALLERIA MALL
Byline: Holly Haber
DALLAS — Cartier plans to boost its volume in Houston by moving its store in mid-December from the Pavilion to a prime location in the Galleria mall next to Neiman Marcus.
“We expect to do much more business there than we did at the Pavilion, and there will be a richer and broader selection of merchandise,” said Simon Critchell, president and chief executive officer of Cartier Inc. “We have been waiting for the perfect location to become available in the Galleria for a long time.”
The new 2,100-square-foot space will be decorated in signature Cartier style, with a green marble facade, mahogany cases and brass vitrines. It will stock fine jewelry, watches, pens, leather goods, lighters, scarves, stationery, fragrance, crystal and gifts.
Cartier’s existing 3,300 square-foot boutique has been at the Pavilion since 1985. Before that, Cartier had a shop-within-a-shop at Frost Bros. that opened in 1979.
“The Pavilion was a great mall at one time,” Critchell observed. “It had Saks and Hermes and had a good position as an upscale mall next to the big-time-volume mall. We had high hopes for it, but…it never really became anything and people became disenchanted.”
The Pavilion has long suffered a high vacancy rate and declining traffic. Saks Fifth Avenue moved its store from the Pavilion to the Galleria in 1997, doubling store space. The Pavilion currently houses a few luxury fashion retailers — Hermes, Esther Wolf and Walzel fine jewelry.
“Cartier’s business in Houston has been a source of satisfaction over the years and has met its budget for the past three years,” Critchell added.”But if the question is do our budgeted figures represent the real potential in Houston, I would say probably not.”
He declined to say how much more volume he projects for the Galleria unit. Cartier operates 185 stores worldwide, including 23 in the U.S., three in Canada and six in the Caribbean. Cartier opened a store at the Galleria in Dallas in the fall of 1997.