Urban Outfitters Multi-Brand Retail Complex In Devon Opens To Roaring Success

Urban Outfitters' new lifestyle center in suburban Pennsylvania has only been open since Aug. 16, but the company's CEO is already calling it a success.

Urban President and CEO Richard Hayne said on an earnings call that Devon Yard, a 6-acre, five-building retail village that houses multiple brands owned by the company, is doing "extremely well," the Philadelphia Business Journal reports. Hayne singled out the eateries in the complex, Amis Trattoria and Terrain Garden Cafe, for having "enormous success" in their first week of operation.

Urban Outfitters, headquartered at the Navy Yard, is treating Devon Yard as a prototype for similar locations across the country, Hayne said in the call to investors. 

The Terrain brand also encompasses a garden shopping center and a 150-person event venue on the grounds, which are joined by a large-format Anthropologie and a BHLDN wedding store. The complex, on land owned by E Kahn Development Corp., is meant to reinvigorate the all-day shopping experience that malls once filled, before the e-commerce revolution.

Thanks to Terrain, the local stone-and-reclaimed wood complex is covered in plants, which remind many locals of the Waterloo Gardens that used to reside on the site. Terrain is also at the center of what might be Devon Yard's masterstroke: its wedding planning.

Couples looking to get married can buy their outfits at BHLDN and have a venue at their disposal at Terrain Garden, a flower supplier in the same place, a registry location at the Anthropologie and a place for a rehearsal dinner at Amis. The setup is enticing enough to bring in 150 reservations based on renderings alone, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.