Cosmetics store to open at U.

Greenwich, Conn., Great Neck, N.Y., and the Main Line are all home to upscale Parfumerie Douglas Cosmetics stores. Now, University City will join that list. European cosmetics giant Parfumerie Douglas will become the final retailer in the first phase of the Sansom Common complex with a 3,000-square-foot space, Penn Managing Director of Real Estate Tom Lussenhop said yesterday. The Xando coffee shop, City Sports and Urban Outfitters have all been previously announced as tenants for the retail and hotel complex under construction on the 3600 block of Walnut Street. Of the three, only City Sports has yet to sign a lease. Parfumerie Douglas Cosmetics, the stateside branch of Germany-based Douglas Holdings, currently has six stores scattered along the East Coast, including one in Center City and one in Ardmore, outside Philadelphia. The chain is based in Westport, Conn. According to Lussenhop, the 50,000-square-foot Barnes and Noble University Bookstore, Sansom Common's anchor tenant, is scheduled to move into its storefront by July 15. The other first-phase retailers should be in business by late August, Lussenhop said. Another two or three retailers will be signed for the next phase of Sansom Common's construction, scheduled to be completed by August 1999. That phase will also include completion of the 250-room Inn at Penn on the complex's top three stories. The decision to come to Penn is part of Douglas Cosmetics' efforts to consolidate the Philadelphia market, according to Gloria Payne, the manager of the chain's store on the 1600 block of Chestnut Street. "We are concentrating in this area," Payne said, adding that Sansom Common was "another, [non-Center City] market for us to look at." Payne described the store as "upscale but trendy." She said the store will carry products appropriate for a student-aged, "cost-conscious" population. "We're going to look for what's in, what's hot, what does the student want," Payne said. While Douglas operates 450 stores throughout Europe and is the continent's largest cosmetics chain, the company is still relatively new to North America. A Stamford, Conn., store that opened in 1984 proved unsuccessful, and the company waited until 1990 before opening another outlet in nearby Greenwich. The success of that store spurred the chain to expand down the East Coast to locations in the metropolitan areas of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Parfumerie Douglas GmbH, the American chain's parent company, posted about 2.6 billion deutsche marks, close to $1.05 billion, in revenues in fiscal year 1997. Payne said she believes the University City store will thrive. She noted that the success of the Clinique counter in the existing Book Store demonstrates the market demand for a cosmetics store. It is unclear whether the new bookstore in Sansom Common will also have a cosmetics counter, as does the current store, located on the 3700 block of Locust Walk. University officials were not immediately available for comment on this issue. Douglas Cosmetics' arrival fits in with Penn's plans to bring more upscale retailers to the area, as the complex is expected to play a role in revitalizing University City by drawing consumers from outside the community.