Thu, Jul. 17, 2003 HARRIS LAND CO. RENDERING

Saks coming to Charlotte
Luxury store joining mixed-use project
DOUG SMITH

For more than 10 years, Dee-Dee Harris has toiled to find the perfect tenant for a high-end mixed-use village next to her luxurious Seven Eagles neighborhood in south Charlotte.

Now, she believes she has it: Saks Fifth Avenue.

Harris said the high-fashion retailer has signed a lease to anchor the 19-acre project, tentatively named The Village at Seven Eagles, at Park and Gleneagles roads next to the exclusive Quail Hollow Country Club.

"I've spent a long time developing relationships," said Harris, president and chief
executive of The Harris Land Co. "There hasn't been a night that this hasn't been on my brain."

The village, which also will include a luxury hotel, residences and upscale shops, is to open with Saks in spring 2005, she said.

Charlotte-based Harris Land will develop it in a joint venture with The Metropolitan Partnership Ltd. of Washington, D.C.

For more than a decade, Charlotte leaders have tried to lure the storied retailer in their effort to build cachet. Harris said she'd been "very quietly pursing Saks for a long time."

"I wanted to make sure the project and the demographics fit," she said. "I did not want to compromise on the quality. We would have had to compromise if we had gone with (the project) earlier."

The area around Quail Hollow Country Club includes some of the city's most expensive luxury homes, and in Seven Eagles prices can easily exceed $1 million.

Harris is married to insurance executive Cameron Harris, whose brother is developer Johnny Harris. Their sister, Sara, is married to developer H.C. "Smoky" Bissell. The families have been prominent in building the upscale SouthPark and massive Ballantyne developments.

It was important to her, Harris said, to be sensitive to the wishes of her neighbors in developing the acreage near Quail Hollow County Club and Seven Eagles.

Harris said Saks will lease an 82,000-square-foot store that will stock the chain's full line of merchandise.

Saks officials were unavailable Wednesday afternoon.

Harris said the two-level Charlotte store will be roughly twice the size of Saks' downtown Charleston store. But it won't be as large as the 120,000-square-foot department store the chain had earlier indicated an intent to open at SouthPark mall.

The Nordstrom department store scheduled to open at SouthPark in March 2004 will be about 144,000 square feet.

Officials at Simon Property Group Inc., which owns the mall, never publicly indicated that Saks was out of the picture.

But in recent weeks they've talked mainly about demolishing the old Sears and replacing it with multiple restaurants and stores.

Harris said the full-service hotel, which could include 100 to 120 rooms and luxury condominium suites, will be directed by Horst Schulze, former president of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co.

Hotel guests and condo residents will have access to lodging services and a planned spa, Harris said.

She said Harris Land will announce more tenants later. The exact size and cost of the village are still being determined, she said.

The developers are in the process of obtaining construction permits and interviewing general contractors, Harris said.

The Village at Seven Eagles is the project's working name, Harris said, but it could change later.

Saks operates an Off 5th, an outlet store, at Concord Mills. The chain plans to open its first N.C. department store in fall 2004 in Raleigh's Triangle Town Center mall.