July 6, 2009 11

Ocean Walk Shoppes to add two restaurants this fall

 

By Clayton Park
Business Report Staff

Ocean Walk Shoppes in Daytona Beach will add two new restaurants this fall. The addition of the tenants – Sloppy Joe’s Bar and Ker’s Wing House Bar & Grill – will boost the total occupancy at the 110,000- square-foot shopping center to 96 percent, up from 82 percent, according to information provided by Ocean Walk officials.
That will leave the two-building, six-story shopping center with just one remaining vacancy: a 4,500-square-foot retail space facing Atlantic Avenue on the second level of the north tower.

William Fraser, a retail leasing specialist with Colliers Arnold in Orlando who has been the leasing agent for Ocean Walk since it opened in November 2002, said he is in talks with a potential tenant for that last space.
The owners of Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Key West will take over a 10,000-square-foot space overlooking the ocean, on the second level of the south tower.

The Sloppy Joe’s at Ocean Walk will include a restaurant, bar, live entertainment and a retail store that carries over 300 products bearing apparel and souvenirs emblazoned with the company’s logo.
A soft opening for Sloppy Joe’s likely will occur in December, said Fraser.

Sloppy Joe’s will employ approximately 75 to 100 people .

Despite the recession, Fraser said Ocean Walk Shoppes had a “strong year” last year, with tenants on average reporting a sales increase of 6.5 percent, compared with their sales in 2007. He declined to provide exact sales figures.

Pamela Rudd, a spokeswoman for Carlsberg Management Company, the Los Angeles based firm that manages and is a part-owner of OceanWalk Shoppes, said the center’s success is due in large part to its location in the heart of Daytona Beach’s six-block Ocean Walk Village district.

The district includes the historic Daytona Beach Bandshell and Main Street Pier, the county’s recently expanded Ocean Center convention center, the Peabody Auditorium performing arts center, Daytona Lagoon water park as well as several restaurants, bars and shops.

Also providing a boost: the big tourist events the city hosts throughout the year, including the Daytona 500 and Coke Zero 400 NASCAR races, Bike Week and Biketoberfest.

As part of its marketing strategy, Ocean Walk Shoppes helps sponsor some community events, such as the free summerlong Saturday night concert series at the Bandshell and free weekly family film screenings throughout the summer at R/C Theatres’ Ocean Walk Movies 10 complex (the shopping center’s largest tenant).

The movie theater, in partnership with OceanWalk Shoppes, also hosts live satellite video broadcasts of performances by the New YorkMetropolitan Opera. The low-cost events include a pre-show wine-tasting and live music.

The multi pronged marketing strategy appears to be paying off.

Ticket sales at Ocean Walk Movies 10, for example, are up 24 percent so far this year, compared with the same period a year ago, said Rudd.

Ocean Walk tenants are also helped by the presence of Wyndham Vacation Resorts’ timeshare hotel in center’s north tower and the Hilton hotel in the south tower, said Rudd.

Rudd said when Ocean Walk opened 6-1/2 years ago, much of the center’s marketing efforts were geared towards national and international travelers.

That strategy has shifted over the years to focus more on the “Florida drive market,” said Rudd, who added: “Without the local community,we cannot be a success.

” Ocean Walk Shoppes (not counting the Hilton and Wyndham hotels) employs approximately 1,800 people.

Clayton Park can be reached at clayton.park@vfbr.com or at 386-681-2470.