Downtown Westport, with upscale retailers such as J. McLaughlin, and Talbots tiffany jewelry stores and Lux Bond & Green jewelry, is slated to get another shopper magnet early this fall.
Tiffany & Co. plans to open a 5,500-square-foot jewelry store at the corner of Post Road and Main Street, where Eddie Bauer outdoor clothing and home furnishings stores had been.
New York City-based Tiffany chose Westport for its second Connecticut location because of the town’s high-income demographic profile, said Mike Christ, group vice president of U.S. retail for the publicly traded jeweler.
The state’s first Tiffany opened at 140 Greenwich Ave. in Greenwich in 2000.
“Westport has a wonderful Main Street retail center,” Christ said. “It gives us a chance to feel very money clips in the community.” Tiffany will join merchants such as Brookstone electronics and gadgets, Gap, Ann Taylor, Pottery Barn, Banana Republic and Guess jeans in the town’s popular Main Street shopping district.
“It adds tremendously to the retail mix in the Main Street area,” said Lois Schine, president of the Westport Chamber of Commerce. “We look forward to them coming.”
Westport shoppers can look forward to inventory that will include Tiffany’s diamonds in platinum and 18-karat gold settings; rare and lustrous pearls; jewelry and watches; designs by Elsa Peretti, Paloma Picasso and Jean Schlumberger; and accessories, china and crystal gifts, according to the company.
The Westport store also will repair watches and jewelry, Christ said. He said Tiffany plans to open other stores in Connecticut, but is not ready to disclose locations yet.
The Eddie Bauer stores closed last year after being in Westport since 1992. The shutdown was part of a massive downsizing that its parent company, Downers Grove, Ill.-based Spiegel Group, underwent after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a year ago. The company accumulated $1.7 billion in debt as sales fell and credit- card customers defaulted on payments.
Spiegel also closed an Eddie Bauer store in the Stamford Town Center pendants last year as part of the reorganization.
Patrick Smith, a broker with New York City-based Staubach Retail real estate, represented the owner of the two-story building that Tiffany will occupy, Win Properties of Greenwich, in negotiations for Tiffany’s lease. Ray Carew of Madison HGCD real estate in New York City represented Tiffany & Co. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Tiffany operates 51 stores in the United States and 90 overseas.