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Tinseltown space to stay vacant till '99 One local business plans to move in the first of the year By DAVID PRESZLER Front-row Joe and Starstruck Penny shouldn't expect much corporate company for the holidays. Nearly a year after Cinemark moved into the 15-theater Tinseltown complex, the surrounding shops in the Medford Center remain empty. One space will be filled around the first of the year, but not with the national chain anchor that developers have been angling for. Special Designs, a local one-of-a-kind gifts and floral shop, has agreed to move to a space next door to the theater, Center Trust -- the California company that owns the Medford Center -- confirmed Tuesday. Still, theater-goers hoping to see a thriving marketplace are going to have to be patient. The earliest the center is expected to be "in full swing is next fall or early 2000," says Howard Wong, the Northwest leasing director for Center Trust. "We don't want to fill it up just to fill it up," Wong says. "We are working with several major retailers right now. But it doesn't happen overnight. "The target here is to have a quality center. We want this to be the most unique center in the Rogue Valley. We don't want this to be another strip center." Wong and other Center Trust officials won't say which national retailers they are talking to, but said they hope to have deals in place soon. "I hope that we would be able to make some significant announcements after the first of the year," said Joe Paggi, a senior vice president for asset management. Center Trust, which absorbed Alexander Haagen Properties this summer, has shifted its recruiting efforts to include local retailers -- as evidenced by the agreement with Special Designs. Early efforts to fill the center had focused on national companies. "On a development like this, you've got to have a good mix," Wong says. "What we want to do is have a mixture of national and local tenants." Shirley Koch, who opened Special Designs in the Biddle Center in 1994, said she was looking for a new location when her lease expired in September. The store has been closed since then and probably won't open until around Jan. 15. "It's going to be good," says Koch of the new location, admitting she is a little nervous about being the first retail store there. "This place will attract a lot of foot traffic. It's going to be a fun spot." Center Trust has worked in recent months to establish a local presence, both with current Medford Center tenants and companies that could move there. Wong says they are looking to hire an on-the-premises property manager. Last week, the company hired Medford's Pulver and Leever Real Estate Company to serve as a local leasing broker. "What has been missing has been the local representation and we'll provide that," Bill Leever says. Both Wong and Leever say attracting a co-anchor or two to go with Tinseltown is the key to getting the center going. "That will create the atmosphere of activity that smaller businesses will want to be part of," Leever says. "You need a major anchor to add to the whole flavor," says Wong. "That's the problem. "These movies theaters can't stand on their own and be the only anchor. It's just not enough." Theaters only attract people at certain times of day, Wong points out, rather than bringing a steady stream of customers. Paggi and Wong both call getting those bigger stores "a top priority" but don't expect to seal any deals in the next month or so. Some national representatives haven't actually visited the site yet and Wong says they probably won't until January or February -- after the holiday retail season. As Paggi puts it: "This time of year, everybody spends their time working on selling merchandise, not opening stores." Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA