JC Penney plans to open its first store in Manhattan

JC Penney is looking to open in New York City's Manhattan Mall, just a block away from the Macy flagship store. Interestingly, JC Penney has stores in all of New York's boroughs except for Manhattan and its store opening here will be part of a nationwide campaign to increase its stores by around 50 per year. Manhattan Mall covers 1 million sq ft of space, combining retail and office space on four levels. At present, the mall is occupied by 60 retailers, who do a combined total of $900-$1,000 in sales per sq ft.

Its sales per square foot make the mall more productive than some of the top centers in the U.S. Taubman Centers Inc.'s portfolio of malls registers the highest sales per square foot in the industry, averaging $508 in 2005, although that figure includes department store anchors, which generate lower sales and bring down the average. One of the most successful centers, the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, generates sales of $1,400 per square foot.