Sportswear retailer moving into mall

Clothing retailer Steve & Barry's University Sportswear plans to open its third Missouri store this summer at Westfield West Park in Cape Girardeau, occupying a spot that has sat vacant since Shopko closed its doors in 2001.

The store is scheduled to open at Westfield on July 27 and employ about 100 people, according to Rick Gomes, a spokesman for the New York-based company. The other Missouri stores are in St. Ann and Springfield.

"We've done a tremendous amount of consumer research, and we like the demographics we saw in Cape Girardeau," Gomes said.

Founded in 1985, Steve & Barry's is a growing national mall-based chain, doubling in size in both 2003 and 2004, Gomes said. The chain has 67 stores in 26 states, Gomes said, noting that they intend to open another 70 stores by the end of the year.

Mall manager Paul Dobbins said it is Westfield's policy not to comment on deals before they are finalized.

"But we are a major part of the growing retail scene," Dobbins said. "Stay tuned: This is definitely an exciting time to be at Westfield West Park."

The spot that Steve & Barry's is taking over -- previously occupied by retailers Venture and Shopko -- is about 80,000 square feet, slightly smaller than the chain's average of about 100,000 square feet.

The stores carry clothing that features logos from local and state-wide colleges and universities as well as a variety of top 25 colleges and universities, Gomes said. He said that the company has already reached a licensing agreement with Southeast Missouri State University.

The clothing retailer keeps all items it sells under $10, Gomes said.

The store also sells clothes that doesn't have university logos, he said, including jeans, footwear, sweat shirts and more than 400 varieties of T-shirts.

Dr. Charlie Wiles, the university's sports marketing director, said such a store would be good for the university's new Redhawks apparel.

"We would be very excited about having that obviously," he said. "It would be wonderful for us to have another outlet that really paid attention to collegiate merchandise."

The Venture and Shopko retailers were both anchor stores. Venture opened in 1981 and closed in 1998. Shopko operated at the mall spot for two years before closing in 2001.

Gomes said nearly all of their stores are anchor stores or junior anchor stores, which means that they are big enough to be an anchor store, but are not located at the end of a mall.

Steve & Barry's has two stores in Missouri and two in Illinois, and two of those four and in anchor spots. At the St. Ann store, also in a Westfield mall, the Steve & Barry's is in an anchor spot, in the former spot of a J.C. Penney.

The Steve & Barry's at the North Riverside Park Mall is also in an anchor spot in Chicago, taking over the spot of a T.J. Maxx.

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137