Curacao department store opening at Meadows Mall

Lucas Jackson / AP

A stove is adorned by a price tag and flags of the Latin American countries that it is deliverable to at a La Curacao store, now Curacao, in Los Angeles on Tuesday, March 14, 2006.

A department store that caters to Hispanic shoppers is opening at Meadows Mall, filling a big, empty space at the decades-old retail hub.

Los Angeles-based Curacao, which sells electronics and household goods, among other items, announced plans today for a 100,000-square-foot store at Meadows.

A news release said the store would open this fall — a date was not specified — and that the company would start hiring for the outlet’s 150-person workforce on Aug. 13.

The store would occupy the now-vacant ground floor of Dillard’s, which closed the first level and converted its second floor into a clearance center in 2014.

The new retailer could boost foot traffic in a mall known for being short on shoppers. It will be Curacao’s first store in Nevada. The chain has 11 locations — two in Arizona and nine in California.

Teylez Perez, vice president of marketing at Curacao, said Las Vegas is “the perfect market for our business model.”

About 30 percent of Clark County’s population is Hispanic, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, and the local economy has regained its footing in recent years after getting clobbered by the recession.

Perez said Curacao is a destination for shoppers, not a store that only caters to its immediate neighborhood, and Meadows Mall in the central Las Vegas Valley is “fairly close to everybody.”

Founded by Iran-born and Israel-raised Jerry Azarkman, Curacao sells electronics, appliances, furniture, jewelry, handbags and beauty products. It also operates a travel agency, offers money transfers and check-cashing services, and ships customer purchases to Mexico and Central America.

Trade publication Dealerscope says Curacao booked $195 million in consumer-electronics sales last year and $615 million in total sales.

Meadows, at U.S. 95 and Valley View Boulevard, opened in 1978. The 945,000-square-foot mall is owned by Chicago-based General Growth Properties, which also owns Fashion Show mall and co-owns Grand Canal Shoppes on the Strip.

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