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J.C. Penney Stapleton store includes Sephora boutique

Joyzelle Davis, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 6, 2007 at midnight

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Sephora opened its fourth store in the Denver area on Friday, but it's not lining the wing of a shopping mall.

Instead, the upscale cosmetic retailer's 1,500-square-foot boutique greets shoppers as soon as they walk into the newly opened J.C. Penney at Northfield Stapleton.

J.C. Penney Co. began adding Sephoras as a store-within-a-store concept a year ago, marking the first time the department store added cosmetics to its product mix. J.C. Penney now offers Sephora in 39 stores nationwide, but the Northfield J.C. Penney is the first in the Denver area.

"We really weren't in the cosmetic business for several years, and it was something that our customers wanted," said Tim Lyons, a spokesman for the Plano, Tex.-based retailer. "When the opportunity to put Sephora in our stores came up, it seemed like a natural fit."

Jane Odneal, an Aurora resident, is a longtime J.C. Penney customer but usually purchases her favorite Bare Escentuals cosmetics from television shopping network QVC. The mineral makeup line is also a mainstay at Sephora, and Odneal stopped by on Friday to pick up a few items.

"It's a benefit" to have a Sephora at the store, she said. "I usually shop here for clothes and housewares."

J.C. Penney has opened or relocated seven stores in Colorado in the past year, bringing its total to 21 in the state. That's part of a larger expansion tear as the company plans to open 250 stores nationwide by 2011 and remodel another 300. The Northfield location was one of 22 the retailer opened Friday.

J.C. Penney is the nation's third-largest department store chain, behind Macy's and Sears.

J.C. Penney is revamping its stores and product mix in an effort to become the department store of choice for middle-income shoppers.

The retailer in recent years signed designers such as Liz Claiborne, home stylist Chris Madden and couture denim makers Chip and Pepper to create exclusive lines for the store. The new, single-level stores feature wider aisles, a single checkout line in the front, and they're located outside of malls to make it easier for customers to run errands.

"I like it," said Eloise McClinton, a Montbello resident who normally shops at the Aurora J.C. Penney. "You can run in and get out."

So far, the effort seems to be paying off. The company reported that second-quarter profit increased 1.7 percent to $182 million on sales of $4.39 billion.

San Francisco-based Sephora entered the Colorado market last year, opening stand-alone stores in Park Meadows, Boulder's Twenty Ninth Street shopping center and Broomfield's FlatIron Crossing. The boutiques are a fraction of the size of the stand-alone stores, but they carry the company's best-selling lines Bare Escentuals, Philosophy and Benefit.

Northfield Stapleton, which opened its first phase last October, is 86 percent leased, said Kem Blue, regional vice president of operations for Northfield developer Forest City Enterprises.

The Improv Comedy Club & Dinner Theater will open its first Colorado venue at the shopping center next month, with Jim & Nick's Bar-B-Q set to follow in November and the Olive Garden early next year, Blue said.

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