Fall flagship fever! Get ready for an active season

Happy Fall! And get ready for a very active season, particularly on the flagship front. The late summer saw a flurry of announcements of large anchor stores around the city. H&M, which not all that long ago announced a 57,000 s/f Fifth Ave. flagship, its largest anywhere, now is topping itself with a 63,000 s/f unit at Herald Center. The latter will be the first branch to carry every product made by the company, from apparel to home to accessories to cosmetics. Hudson Yards' first anchor tenant will truly serve its residential community - Fairway. A bit uptown, Opening Ceremony will anchor the redevelopment of SuperPier 57 (in 2015). And finally, Nordstrom's announcement that it had acquired the land under its planned store at 225 West 57th St. is a true commitment to opening - and a great real estate play. We'll soon have a flotilla of new flagships! The fall leasing and grand opening season is heating up nicely. Fendi is moving from Fifth Ave. to the former Mont Blanc space at 598 Madison Ave. Dockers is popping up for four weeks at 25 Howard St. Restoration Hardware will open a gallery, RH Contemporary Art at 437 West 16th St. H&M is planning a four-level, 63,000 s/f store at 1293 Broadway (Herald Center). Bite Beauty is converting its summer pop-up store at 174 Prince St. to a permanent space. DreamDry came to 315 West 57th St. in early September. The renovation and expansion of Tom Ford's flagship at 845 Madison Ave. is complete. Uniqlo will open its shop at Staten Island Mall on October 18 and Atlantic Terminal Mall in Brooklyn on October 25. Published reports say Los Angeles' J Brand will come east to New York sometime in late 2014. BrowShop will give you the perfect arch at its in-store salon at Completely Bare, 103 Fifth Ave. Valley will add to the women's boutique scene in Tribeca at 393 Greenwich St. Astoria Bookshop has come to 31-29 31st St. in Queens. Haberdasher Alex Mill, just opened at 269 Elizabeth St., has a terrific pedigree: designer Alex Drexler is the son of J. Crew CEO Mickey. Vince debuted its Soho shop at 89 Mercer St. in August. At press time, Rising States, a women's clothing and accessories boutique, was to open this month at 168 Ludlow St. Extra Butter, Long Island's mainstay for urban street wear, is coming to the Lower East Side at 125 Orchard St. 3.1 Philip Lim will open a flagship at 48 Great Jones St. Badgeley Mischka's anxiously awaited boutique, its first in New York, opened at 24 East 64th St. Look for the Alexander McQueen flagship at 747 Madison Ave. and Dover St. Market at 160 Lexington Ave. to debut by year-end. Jonathan Adler's first Accessories Store has opened at 37 Greenwich St. After successfully popping up on the Bowery, The Monocle Order has opened at 5 Devoe Street in Williamsburg. Hip consignment shop Beacon's Closet will move from Williamsburg to 74 Guernsey St. in Greenpoint before the year is out. Drugstore Harmon Face Values' first standalone unit is at 675 Sixth Ave. Also busy is the speaking calendar, with literally just a couple of days before I discuss what's happening on the retail scene on Thursday, September 26 at 2 p.m., the final day of the real estate Academy for Continuing Education (180 Central Park South), run by my friend Esther Muller. For more information, visit www.realestateacademy.com. Leaders from three legendary New York real estate dynasties - the Goodsteins, Rudins and Roses - will discuss how their family backgrounds are helping them shape the New York of tomorrow at the next NYCREW Industry Spotlight: The Women Leading New York's Real Estate Families. The event will be held Thursday, October 3 from 6 to 8 p.m. at a location to be announced shortly. I will moderate the discussion with Samantha Rudin Earls, vice president of Rudin Management Co.; Amy Rose, co-president of Rose Associates; and Shari Goodstein Rossi, executive director, partner of Goodstein Organization, LLC. For more information, visit www.nycrew.org. I'm also looking forward to discussing "Bye-bye BRICS, Welcome Oz: Retail Globalization" at the fifth annual NYC Real Estate Expo, being held October 8th at the New York Hilton. This conference has grown rapidly to be one of the premier events in real estate in the city, and I can't wait to give my views on where the new stores around town are coming from, and where they're going! For more info, visit www.nycrealestateexpo.com. On November 19th, I'll be speaking on the state of retail for my colleagues at CREW Connecticut at the Gershon Fox Ballroom at 960 Main St. in Hartford. Cocktails begin at 5 p.m., and the program will last until 7 p.m. For more information, please visit http://www.crewct.org/events.php. And a couple of save-the-dates for the holidays: NYCREW's year-end Annual Gala and Vanguard Awards Celebration has been set for Tuesday, December 3rd, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at The Columbus Townhouse, 8 East 69th St. This is our most joyous celebration, where we celebrate the year's successes and look forward to the year ahead. As before, visit www.nycrew.org for registration. And plans are well under way for the Women's Special Industry Group year-end program at the International Council of Shopping Centers' New York National Conference. Our event will be held Monday, December 9th from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at the New York Hilton's Mercury Ballroom. Please keep checking www.icsc.org - and this column - for details. Happy Shopping! Faith Hope Consolo, is the chairman of the retail group at Douglas Elliman Real Estate, New York, N.Y.