California Apparel News

The California Market Center, which houses the California Mart, has named a new vice president of marketing and a general manager for the center, which includes the Cal Mart’s apparel tenants and the new gift and home accessories tenants.

Lorelyn Eaves has been named vice president of marketing for apparel, gift and home. She will be overseeing retail development, advertising, public relations, special events and buyer services. She began her position on June 6 and will report to Paul Lentz, the newly named general manager.

Lentz is a long-time real estate executive who will begin his new position on June 17. He will oversee leasing, marketing, operations and the administrative areas of the CMC, according to Cindy Morris, executive vice president of marketing for the CMC and the Dallas Market Center (DMC).

Lentz was most recently with commercial real estate firm Transwestern Properties, where he launched the company’s West Coast division, overseeing Transwestern’s property holdings, which encompassed more than 30 million square feet.

Before joining Transwestern, Lenz was executive vice president of the DMC, overseeing the leasing of all gift and home tenants.

In a letter sent to Cal Mart tenants, Bill Winsor, chief executive officer of Market Center Management Company, the parent company of both the CMC and the DMC, expressed confidence in Lentz’s appointment: “Paul is a known entity to us and has excellent management skills and experience, not only in the market center business but in the management of real estate and tenant relations. He knows Los Angeles and will be a perfect leader to take our California Market Center team to the next level.”

Eaves’ background covers both the apparel and gift industries—something CMC executives were looking for in a candidate for the position, according to Morris.

Eaves was most recently with HomeStore.com and her resume includes a three-year stint as director of marketing for MAGIC International.

“Our goal all along has been to try to create an integrated marketing department that will serve both the hard and soft goods areas,” Morris said, adding “In terms of the existing staff, we are still looking at broadening some of their responsibilities to include both hard and soft goods and some of them will remain just soft-goods focused.”

CMC executives also named an additional director of leasing for the home and gift market. Tracy Stier will be working with Jim Nahin, also director of leasing for the center. Stier was previously with Hoyt Publishing, publisher of Home Decor Buyer magazine, where she was regional sales manager. Morris said executives are considering adding more leasing positions for the gift and home accessories segments.

More marketing positions may open up as well, Morris said, after Eaves and Lentz meet with the existing marketing staff to determine how to allocate apparel and gift/home segment responsibilities.

“We want to make sure that we have them in the slots that best fit—not only for their skill set but where they envision themselves as well,” she said.