New Coldwater Creek opens

SANDPOINT – Maureen Lange couldn’t resist trying the double doors of Coldwater Creek’s new Sandpoint store Thursday. When they swung open, she walked in on a pep talk the district manager was giving to the sales staff in advance of Saturday’s grand opening.

Lange smiled and shrugged, promising to come back later. She often wears Sandpoint’s homegrown label, known for its colorful, casual women’s apparel, and she’s been curious about the new store.

“Coldwater Creek seems to appeal to the 40s and 50s woman,” Lange said. “I think it’s cool to have our own niche, because the teenagers certainly have theirs.”

The company’s new Sandpoint store reflects the company’s growing emphasis on retail operations. Founded as a catalog retailer in 1994, Coldwater Creek will operate 239 stores by the end of 2006.

With stores scattered across the country, Coldwater Creek had less need for a flagship store in Sandpoint, said David Gunter, company spokesman. The new store is about two-thirds the size of the company’s original store on the Cedar Street Bridge. Last year, the firm announced that it would not renew its lease on the Cedar Street Bridge retail site.

“At the bridge store, our customers were making what we called pilgrimages to the apocryphal place called ‘Coldwater Creek,’ ” Gunter said.

Now many of those customers can try on Coldwater Creek clothes at a store in their hometown. But the Sandpoint store will still be a destination for shoppers from Spokane, Western Montana and southern British Columbia, Gunter predicted.

At 9,300 square feet, the new store is about twice the size of Coldwater Creek’s average retail footprint. The upstairs contains a wine bar, with deep leather chairs and a fireplace, plus two apartments for visiting Coldwater Creek executives. On the ground floor, racks of summer fashions hang in rainbows of teal, fuchsia, lemon and peach.

The new store is in the historic W.A. Bernd building, built in 1907. Lydig Construction oversaw the renovation of the building, which retains its original brick walls and grand fir rafters and beams. Gunter declined to disclose the cost of the remodeling, but said it was in excess of the $600,000 Coldwater Creek typically spends on new stores. About two dozen full- and part-time employees will work at the new store.

Coldwater Creek began shifting its focus from catalog to retail stores about seven years ago. The company’s target customers – women 35 and older – spend a collective $50 billion on clothing each year, according to national research. “About 90 percent of that money is spent in brick-and-mortar stores,” Gunter said.

Rae Ann Fry, who operates Hair Unlimited, hopes to pick up some foot traffic from the store’s opening. She’s next door, and she closed up shop for three weeks during the height of the construction. The sidewalk was closed and some customers avoided downtown because of the heavy truck traffic, Fry said.

“But now it’s done,” she said, “and it looks great.”

Coldwater Creek has always been a draw for downtown, according to Fry. “They bring busloads of people in.”