Annapolis Towne Centre's anchor on Target for opening

Three floors of the new 140,000-square-foot Target store are ready for little red buggies to be wheeled up and down the aisles Oct. 12, the date the retailer opens for business.

On Friday, employees decked out in signature red shirts and khaki pants were stocking the shelves and racks and putting a few finishing touches on product displays.

"We've been in here for several weeks now. We just can't wait for the store to finally open and for people to start coming in," said employee Tina Aguirre, who had been hanging up a rack of pastel-colored toddler outfits.

Target is a Minneapolis-based "big-box" department store that has nearly 1,700 storehouses throughout the country in 47 states.

But because this Target has a unique vertical architecture with a three-story atrium and parking garage, it's hardly representative of the typical big-box design.

A detail such as the "cart conveyor," a trolley that pulls the shopping carts alongside the escalators so customers can transport purchases to their cars in the garage, is one of a handful of other distinguishing features at Annapolis' first Target store.

About 380 area residents work for the Target at Annapolis Towne Centre at Parole. About half of them were applicants at the development's job fair held three weeks ago, said Jane Nguyen, head of the store's human resources department.

Of the total employees, about 30 are full-time workers, with the rest being part-time. The wages for workers range from $9 to $11 per hour, team leaders said at the job fair.

Jaime Tucker, store manager, is an Annapolis native. She said the store has provided a number of other local residents with jobs, while also pulling in workers who live in Crownsville, Crofton, Glen Burnie and Pasadena.

BusinessWeek magazine recently named Target as one of the best places to launch a career. Out of 119 companies nationwide, Target was ranked 14th and was No. 1 out of all the retailers.

The survey credited Target's career opportunities for recent college graduates for pushing the retailer to the top of the list, surpassing Macy's, Walgreens, Kohl's, Abercrombie & Fitch and Sears, among others.

For many area residents, next week will be the fulfillment of a retail-therapy dream they've had for four years.

In 2004, The Capital surveyed readers, asking them what major anchor store they'd like to see at Annapolis Towne Centre at Parole. The resounding answer was Target, beating out others such as Wal-Mart, Macy's and Dick's Sporting Goods. Brian Gibbons, president of Greenberg Gibbons Commercial, the development company that is building the shopping center, said at that point it was clear: the area's shoppers had spoken.

"It's a store that everybody shops in," Mr. Gibbons said. "Not everybody shops in Nordstrom, and not everybody shops in Wal-Mart, but everybody shops in Target. And even though it's affordable merchandise, if you read Women's Wear Daily, the No. 1 store for women making more than $300,000 is Target."

Mr. Gibbons said the cache of Target cannot be underestimated. Although the store carries brands that are set at a lower price-point than many other retail tenants for the development, the demographics of its market overlap with luxury boutiques such as Brooks Brothers, Anthropologie and Coldwater Creek - other stores scheduled to open at the shopping center, he said.

"They said they'd love to be next to Target," Mr. Gibbons said. "The have the same customers."

But in these sluggish economic times, some are left wondering if a new Target can survive. Mr. Gibbons said any retail project right now is a risk, but he believes the odds are in the development's favor.

"Clearly we have economic issues across the board, but what you see across the country right now is that these primary living projects are moving forward. The vertical, mixed-use developments have been doing pretty well," Mr. Gibbons said. "If we were starting this project today, it would be difficult to finance, but we're ahead of the curve right now."

Tom Sequella, president of the Maryland Retail Association, said he believes Target will be successful because it fills the "big-box" niche lacking in the Annapolis market.

He said Annapolis shoppers have been waiting for a Target to arrive for a long time.

"I always joke to people that Annapolis is probably one of the most successful retail areas that neither has a Wal-Mart nor a Target," Mr. Sequella said. "(But) it'll be nice that people won't have to commute out to Bowie or Severna Park now to shop at a Target."

It won't be the first attempt for a big-box to try to break into the Annapolis market. Before Greenberg purchased the property, Wal-Mart tried for years to build on the same site.

But public outcry followed when those plans were announced, even though a Sam's Club was already located nearby. Many residents feared the store would cause traffic jams and threaten smaller local businesses.

Mr. Sequella said he doesn't believe downtown shops should worry about the impact Target will have on business because their location and atmosphere will always appeal to shoppers.

"From Target's point-of-view, they've been wanting to locate in Annapolis for at least 10 years now, so I think this is good for them," he said.