More change in 3401: Gap grows, Foot Locker to close

Rose's Florist will also relocate as part of the Gap's expansion. The Gap clothing store in the 3401 Walnut Street complex will soon triple in size, taking up the space currently occupied by Foot Locker and Rose's Florist, University officials announced yesterday. Longtime tenant Foot Locker will close its doors permanently on February 28, while Rose's Florist -- which recently moved from the former mall in the basement of Houston Hall -- will be relocated to another campus location within the next 45 days, according John Greenwood, a top official with Trammell Crow, the company that manages University real estate holdings. The University has been considering expanding the Gap into adjacent store spaces for about a year and announced last fall that it would not renew the Foot Locker lease this spring. "To accommodate Gap we did have to recapture some space," Greenwood said. Greenwood added that Rose's Florist will likely move into the storefront currently occupied by the 9 & Co. shoe store, which is set to shut down early next month. That move, though, would also probably be temporary, Greenwood said, because the University still plans to open an apparel store in that space. On March 1, Gap will take possession of the Foot Locker space and begin a two-part expansion that will include construction on both the newly acquired store spaces and its current site, Greenwood said. The trendy clothing store will stay open throughout the construction, according to store manager Wendy Forbes. During the first phase – which will take about 13 weeks -- Gap will renovate the two spaces while keeping the current store open for business. Then, Gap will close its current spot for remodeling and open the newly constructed store space. By August, the entire store will be open for business, Forbes said. Forbes said the change will be beneficial to Gap because its small size limits the amount of merchandise the store can sell. "We don't currently have the space to carry everything the company produces," Forbes said. The newly expanded Gap -- almost triple its current size -- will provide the floor space to enlarge its merchandise line, allowing it to include more intimate and dressy clothing and more body care products, Forbes said. The 3401 Walnut Street complex has seen many changes over the past year, as the University has looked to upgrade and expand campus retail options. With the temporary closing of Houston Hall during the Perelman Quadrangle construction and the impending destruction of the old Bookstore building to make room for a new $120 million Wharton School facility, three of Penn's retail tenants were recently relocated to the 3401 complex. There is still one vacancy -- the spot on the Walnut Street side that until recently housed the Smile gift shop. The complex's food court has also been the site of several recent changes. There are currently two vacancies in the Moravian Cafes, one of which will soon be filled by a deli, officials announced last week.