Its facade is not yet complete, it's still recovering from the devastating fire last August that threw its tenant mix into chaos -- and then there's the economy.
Everyone knows about the economy.
Despite the unquestionable uphill battle, Santana Row, the upscale, mixed-use development owned by Federal Realty Trust, is coming into its own as a South Bay destination, drawing shoppers and diners with its promise of a "European" style experience.
Nobody will talk specific dollars and cents. But Tom Miles, Federal Realty's on-site manager, said that 13 of 15 stores that reported numbers last month exceeded his goals.
"We are 10 percent ahead of our projections. I'm not an overly aggressive planner, and I was very satisfied with that," he says.
June is Miles' last month with Federal Realty and Santana Row. His assistant, Doug Vadia, will take over and Miles will join a company in Los Angeles.
"I'm an opener and a fixer. It's what I do best. Once a property is up and running, I lose interest," he says, adding that Santana Row "is the last project of this sort that Federal Realty will ever want to do again. This has cured them of ever wanting to do it again."
There might be more diners than shoppers right now (as the two-hour wait at Maggiano's Little Italy on a weekend night might indicate), but retailers say the shoppers are there as well.
At the Atelier AVEDA salon, owner Karie Bennett -- known unofficially as the mayor of Santana Row -- says she has met goals she didn't expect to reach until November.
"I have had famous people in my store, and I have had people who clean houses for a living. Both are spending money at Santana Row," she says. "You can come here and shop at Gucci or you can come here and eat at Chili's. There is so much here, everyone can come down to Santana Row."
Santana Heights, the building that was all but destroyed by a fire last summer, celebrated its grand opening this month. With that, 35 retailers and restaurants joined the shopping and residential complex.
At cookware store Sur la Table, vice president Jayme Witman acknowledges that the company's Santana Row location got off to a rocky start, but says it now exceeds the company's sales expectations.
"We started out limping a little. Because of the fire, our co-tenants were nonexistent for a bit," she says. "But now we're definitely doing better than what a new store does out of the box."
Maggiano's manager Stuart Smith says the restaurant (its parent company's first Maggiano's in Northern California) has check averages higher than those at its Los Angeles restaurant. Diners, he says, view eating at Maggiano's as an event in itself, and not part of a larger evening's plans.
"People in San Jose seem to use the dinner experience as their night out on the town" Smith says. "We are loving the traffic coming through. É We're seeing quite a few people with shopping bags coming in."
Clearly, not all has been rosy for retailers at Santana Row, though. Stop Art, the gallery featuring contemporary European artists, closed its doors recently, and rumors abound that one chain plans to abandon its location once its short-term lease runs out.
Representatives of Stop Art could not be contacted, but a recent San Jose Mercury News article cited lackluster sales and the departure of former Federal Realty CEO Steve Guttman as reasons for the gallery's closure.
Nationally, mall traffic is down and retailers generally are finding the economy a challenge.
"I think there certainly will be turnover in the mall. It has to establish itself and create its own character. It takes a while to get the right tenant mix," says Dale Achabal, director of the Retail Management Institute at Santa Clara University.
"Overall, I don't think Santana Row is meeting the expectation it had [during the boom]. But Santana Row is a very enjoyable place to be. It's so different than your typical regional mall. It really is a European style shopping experience."
