By Susan CarpenterLos Angeles Times

Any rider who’s cracked thebinding of a motorcycle maga-zine in recent years knows we’reliving in the golden age, but if thefaithless are looking for moreproof, the new three-wheelerswould be it.

This year marks the entranceof two new trikes to the market— one motorcycle, one scooter— each with twin wheels outfront.

Both are attempting whatseems impossible: to simultane-ously lure riders with years ofsaddle time and newbies whonever have thrown a leg over. Al-ready, that makes the new three-wheelers doubly radical. Butwhat’s even more radical is howdifferently each bike is goingabout achieving the same goal.

The 2008 BRP Can-Am Spy-der: As a two-wheel traditional-ist, I didn’t think it was possibleto take a high-speed turn on

three wheels while sitting straightup, but after a day with the cut-ting-edge technology of BRP’sCanuck creepy crawler, I’m a be-liever.

Unlike a traditional motorcycle,the $14,999 Spyder does not lean

in turns. Any leaning a ridermight do is a matter of style anddiscretion because it isn’t neces-sary with a trio of stability sys-tems keeping it glued to theground.

The 2007 Piaggio MP3 puts its

twin wheels in the front 40 ratherthan the back pasture, but that’swhere the similarities end.

Unlike on the Can-Am three-wheeler, riders can’t see the frontwheels because they aren’t as farforward or as spread out.

By George Hohmannbusiness@dailymail.com

There were two big changes atthe Charleston Town Center lastyear: The Kaufmann’s store be-came a Macy’s, and BrickStreetMutual Insurance Co. announcedit would transform the formerMontgomery Ward store intofirst-class office space.

The switch from Kaufmann’sto Macy’s was celebrated onSept. 9 with free entertainment,a ribbon-cutting ceremony and achance to win $1,000. Inside thestore, Macy’s private brand mer-chandise was introduced.

It was all a result of Federat-ed Department Stores Inc.’s $17billion takeover of rival May De-partment Stores Inc. With thedeal, Macy’s became the largestdepartment store chain in Amer-ica with more than 800 stores.

Lisa McCracken, CharlestonTown Center’s marketing direc-tor, said, “The transformationwas done really well, and theyfollowed it with a very success-ful holiday season. I would sayour Macy’s is off to a tremendousstart.”

In December, BrickStreet Pres-ident and Chief Executive OfficerGreg Burton announced that thecompany had purchased theMontgomery Ward and BobEvans Restaurant spaces at themall for $9 million and wouldspend $10 million more to turnthe property into first-class officespace.

Workmen almost immediatelybegan tearing down the formerrestaurant building and the for-mer Ward auto store. They alsogutted the Ward space.

Burton said BrickStreet hopesto move in by Oct. 1. The changewill put 500 office workers inspace that had been vacant forfive years.

Town Center Manager TomBird said, “2006 was kind ofquiet for new stores” because themall’s retail lineup had changeda lot during the previous fiveyears. “We have the best teen ap-parel lineup in the state,” hesaid. “But there have been someadditions to the mix in other ar-eas as well, and they help us ap-peal to a broader demographic.”

McCracken said 2006 storeopenings included:

■ In May Talbots Petites andTalbots Woman opened on thesecond floor. Talbots Petites is inthe space formerly occupied byWalden Books. Talbots Woman isinside the Talbots flagship store.They are the only Talbots storesin West Virginia.

■ Bandolinos, a women’s up-scale shoe salon, opened in Juneon the Clendenin Street end ofthe mall’s first floor, in space pre-viously occupied by Inspired andChiller’s Doll Shop. It is the onlyBandolinos store in West Vir-ginia.

■ Also in June, Inspired, a lo-cally owned handbag and ac-cessories shop, became an in-line,permanent tenant with 1,300square feet of space beside SearsCourt.

■ A kiosk tenant, the PawPrints Doggie Café, opened inJune on the first floor, acrossfrom Maggie Moo’s.

■ A Dell Direct Store openedin June just outside of AdamsHallmark. “It was one of 160 newkiosks they opened around thecountry in malls and airports,”McCracken said.

■ Maggie Moo’s Ice Creamand Treatery opened in Septem-ber on the second floor, in thespace formerly occupied bySports Treasures.

■ Borders Express replacedWalden Books in September andmoved into the space formerlyoccupied by the Express clothingstore on the second floor, acrossfrom the Gap.

■ In September Country Walls,a local seasonal retailer, movedinto the space formerly occu-pied Schwabe-May. McCrackensaid Country Walls “had theirmost successful year to date.We’ve approached them aboutbeing a permanent, year-roundtenant.”

■ The mall introducedBooBaLoo, its new stroller pro-gram, in September. “They looklike Fred Flintstone cars,” Mc-Cracken said, referring to the fic-tional character in the 1960s tel-evision animated series, “TheFlintstones.”

During 2006 the mall present-

ed a variety of characters andcelebrities including: the CareBears, Blue’s Clues, AngelinaBallerina, Clifford the Big RedDog, and Franklin the Turtle.

Hundreds of teens descendedon the mall in March to catch aglimpse of Talan Torriero, whomMcCracken described as “themiddle-school and high-school-age heartthrob from the MTVshow ‘Laguna Beach.’ “

In December, the mall hostedMattel’s official Barbie, live andin person.

“As you can see, in marketingto our audience, we were verystrong in presenting celebritiesand characters,” McCracken said.

On Feb. 1, parking in themall’s garages went from $1.50to $1.75. “That is the first in-crease in nearly 14 years,” Mc-Cracken said. “It’s still a very

good value.”“During 2007, you’ll see us

continue to upgrade our garageswith improved lighting and se-curity cameras,” she said.

Already this year, the mall hasannounced several retail changes:

■ The 6,500-square-foot Amer-ican Eagle store will add 3,000square feet so it can offer its newAerie brand of sleepwear and un-dergarments for teens. The ex-pansion will occur before thefall back-to-school shopping sea-son.

American Eagle “is our No. 1teen retailer and the No. 1 teenretailer in the country,” Mc-Cracken said. “When theyopened in the mall in the 1980s,they were known as AmericanEagle Outfitters. They have sinceredefined who they are and whotheir market is.”

American Eagle is on the sec-ond floor near Center Court.

■ A new clothing store forteenage girls, dELiA*s, is movinginto the former Schwabe-Mayspace. The store is expected to

open in early May. It will bedELiA*s first store in West Vir-ginia.

Four Town Center stores willbe completely remodeled thisyear, McCracken said. They arethe Dairy Queen and Icing onthe second floor and Hot Topicand Zales Jewelers on the firstfloor.

Charleston Town Center hasjust over 900,0000 square feet ofGross Leasable Area.

“The good news is we’re 98percent leased, but the bad newsis we’re 98 percent leased,” Mc-Cracken said. “Leasing deals nowbecome more complicated be-cause we have less availablespace.

“Our hope as we go forwardis to fine-tune our specialty re-tailers, maintain our three strongdepartment stores and make surewe always have the popular na-tional tenants that our guestsand customers prefer.”

Contact writer GeorgeHohmann at business@daily-mail.com or 348-4836.

2L February 25, 2007 Sunday Gazette-Mail

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Town Center sees big, small changes

BOB WOJCIESZAK/Sunday Gazette-Mail

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“Our hope as we go forward is to fine-tuneour specialty retailers, maintain our three strongdepartment stores and make sure we alwayshave the popular national tenants that ourguests and customers prefer.”

Lisa McCracken Charleston Town Center’s marketing director

BrickStreet,Macy’s givemall new look

New three-wheelers offer nice ride