Syracuse, NY -- An executive with funky retailer Urban Outfitters said Tuesday Syracuse was a logical choice for one of only a handful of stores the company builds each year. Todd Swanson, senior district manager for Philadelphia-based Urban Outfitters, was the guest speaker Tuesday at the Downtown Committee’s annual meeting, held at the Hotel Syracuse in downtown Syracuse. “We...
Syracuse, NY -- An executive with funky retailer Urban Outfitters said Tuesday Syracuse was a logical choice for one of only a handful of stores the company builds each year.
Todd Swanson, senior district manager for Philadelphia-based Urban Outfitters, was the guest speaker Tuesday at the Downtown Committee’s annual meeting, held at the Hotel Syracuse in downtown Syracuse.
“We look at the demographics, the local retail scene and whether our customer lives there,” said Swanson, a Pittsburgh native and University of Pittsburgh alum who used the opportunity for acknowledging the longstanding Pitt-Syracuse University rivalry.
Swanson, who is helping oversee the development of the chain’s store at 221 Walton St. in Armory Square, said that region of downtown Syracuse is a perfect fit for how Urban Outfitters unfolds stores: Taking advantage of historic places and blending into their architecture.
The Urban Outfitters team swarmed into the historic McArthur, Cooney and Wirth Building earlier this year for an interior and exterior renovation, months after the fall announcement the retailer was coming to downtown Syracuse.
True to Urban Outfitters’ style, the new store, scheduled to open Aug. 19, retains many of the historic elements and way-back look of the structure.
Swanson showed some slides of interior renovations of the three-level store. Fitting rooms on floor three make use of gaping skylights and the interiors have floorboards from a former elementary school. That re-use, recycle mentality has been a core value for Urban Outfitters since its founding in 1970, said Swanson.
Urban Outfitters typically moves into downtown storefronts, rather than suburban malls, and renovates older buildings. Its closest store to Syracuse, in The Commons in Ithaca, follows that framework.
The arrival of Urban Outfitters on the downtown scene will likely mean an increase in shopper traffic, spilling into the locally owned boutiques and restaurants that populate the former warehouse district. Urban Outfitters typically appeals to college-age students, and with tens of thousands in the Central New York region, the draw downtown could be monumental, said Swanson.
And if a national chain shows success once again downtown, it could signal a draw for other national retailers, many of whom who abandoned the downtown part of the city in the 1980s and 1990s with the growth of Carousel Center mall in Syracuse and other malls and shopping centers in the suburbs.
Swanson said Urban Outfitters’ target customer is typically between the ages of 18 and 28, looking to outfit themselves and their living spaces. The Syracuse store, Swanson projected, will likely hit $5 million in annual sales, comfortable in-between revenues for typical Urban Outfitters outlets, which have annual sales ranging from $2 million to $12 million.
Each Urban Outfitters store is unique to its neighborhood and city, said Swanson. The Syracuse store will be no different, and because of the nearness of SU, will load up more on furnishings than many other Urban Outfitters.
