ST. LOUIS, May 15, 2006 – Bakers Footwear Group Inc. has signed a 10-year lease with Clark Properties for 196,200 square feet of space at Union Seventy Center Business Park, 3901 Union Blvd. The announcement was made by Michael H. Clark, president of Clark Properties.
Bakers Footwear Group is a St. Louis-based retail shoe company that currently operates 238 stores in 36 states. In addition to the Bakers brand, Bakers stores also offer Steve Madden, bebe, Diesel, Restricted, Rocket Dog and Skechers brands.
“Bakers Footwear was leasing at Union Seventy Center Business Park when it decided to expand,” Clark said. As part of the expansion, Bakers invested in a custom-designed inventory management and conveying system to serve its network of stores.
“Originally, we moved Bakers from 107,000 square feet to a 145,200-square-foot suite of warehouse and office space,” Clark said. “Their additional needs required another 51,000 square feet of space, or a total of 196,200 square feet of leased space at Union Seventy Center Business Park.”
Clark Properties’ ability to quickly respond to Bakers’ growing needs impressed Stanley K. Tusman, Bakers Footwear Group executive vice president, inventory and information management. According to Tusman, only a few months after Bakers’ state-of-the-art inventory management and conveying system was in place and operational, the need for more space presented itself.
“In addition to starting up our new warehouse operations, our newly introduced catalog was reaching customers’ homes, business from our Web site, www.bakersshoes.com, jumped just as we were receiving significant orders through the catalog, while at the same time we were receiving shipments for one of our busiest selling seasons,” Tusman said.
Tusman and David Volkerson, Bakers’ director of warehousing, contacted Wayne Weidemann, vice president of Clark Properties. “Wayne started working with us immediately to find additional space for our expanding inventory,” Tusman said.
Fortunately, a space adjacent to Bakers’ suite was available and Weidemann was able to combine the two suites to accommodate Bakers’ expanded operations.
“That type of responsiveness is what a business partnership is about,” Tusman said.
“What we did for Bakers Footwear Group is what we like to do for all of our tenants,” said Weidemann. “Clark Properties’ goals always include prompt and responsive customer service.”
Union Seventy Center is located along Interstate 70, about 6 miles east of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and 7 miles northwest of downtown. It encompasses 1.6 million square feet of quality warehouse and office space. Much of its warehouse space features clear height ceilings of up to 21 feet, excess utility capacities, functional bay sizing, abundant truck docking and parking. In addition to Bakers, there are about 20 additional firms located within Union Seventy Center Business Park, including Pepsi-Cola, Smurfit-Stone and Save-A-Lot.
Clark Properties is a full-service real estate development and property management company headquartered in St. Louis. Clark has acquired, renovated and sold or leased more than 5 million square feet of office, warehouse/distribution and light manufacturing space. In a related business, Clark Logistic Services is a full-service third-party logistics company providing warehousing operations and transportation management services to local, regional and national companies. For more information, visit www.clark-properties.com. and www.clarklogisticservices.com.
Editor’s note: Clark Properties is located at 5391 Brown Avenue, St. Louis, Mo. (63120).
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