Chico's to Anchor New Irvine Center

Fort Myers, Fla.–based Chico’s FAS Inc. will open its first Irvine, Calif., store this summer at the new Orchard Hills Village Center, located off of Culver Drive.

The 3,800-square-foot store will help anchor Orchard Hills, a 125,000-square-foot neighborhood shopping center located at the corner of Culver Drive and Portola Parkway. The Irvine Co. is developing the center, which will include other clothing boutiques such as women’s surfwear shop Lilikoi.

The center is about 80 percent leased, said an Irvine Co. spokesperson.

With the Irvine unit, Chico’s will have nearly every corner of California’s Orange County covered, with stores in Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, San Juan Capistrano, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana and Brea.

The retailer has about 600 front-line stores along with 34 outlets.

The Irvine Co. now has 36 neighborhood shopping centers in addition to regional centers such as Fashion Island and the Irvine Spectrum. Orchard Hills is named so because it is being built next to a working avocado orchard.

The Orchard Hills Village Center is designed to look like a village in the Tuscany region of Italy. Buildings will have gabled roofs, and the entire center will feature a variety of trees, including tristanias, Italian cypresses, pepper trees, olive trees, eucalyptus windrows and the adjacent avocado trees.

The center is scheduled to open in June.

R.M.