Retailers are starting to move into Washington Mall Phase III — Bermuda's newest retail space — with The Booth the latest business to open its doors in the new building.

The Booth, which is owned by Darren Booth, launched its second shop on Wednesday and has already seem a steady stream of trade over the last week after moving the other part of its business Heel Quick to its store in Washington Mall and relocating its luggage products to the new premises.

The whole business now operates under the name of The Booth, with the shoe repair side of the enterprise continuing to run as before.

The Booth joins a growing number of businesses which have opened in Washington Mall III in recent weeks, including Bermuda Motors and All Wrapped Up Home, with the rest of the 62,000 square feet of office space on four floors and 25,000 square feet of retail space on two levels to be filled.

Paul Slaughter of Washington Properties Ltd. said that 90 percent of the leases for the building were being negotiated, with several businesses believed to be eyeing up moves into the new premises from their existing locations in Washington Mall, including Digicel. The Gibbons Company is understood to be taking over the majority of the top level of the new building, with most of the stores planning to open in September before the Christmas rush.

Meanwhile new and existing retailers are set to move into the lots vacated in the original building, such as Locomotion, which will take over the space occupied by Heel Quick.

But the biggest challenge has been to make shoppers aware that the new building is now open for business, according to Mr. Booth.

"The hard thing right now is getting people to come in because it doesn't look like the building is open," he said.

He said the new 1,900 square foot shop will give him a lot more room to display his merchandise, including his main line of business — luggage — a new range of boys' fashions and an expanded line of women's clothing — all of which are not readily available in Bermuda. In addition, he said that while the rent for the new building space was more expensive than the original Washington Mall, it was still affordable and in line with overseas prices.

"The main reason behind the move is because the luggage that I sell is where I make most of my money and I had to find somewhere to move it all," he said.

Mr. Booth said that business had been good so far, starting off progressively over Wednesday to Friday before picking up and becoming quite busy on Saturday, and he has had to take on several summer staff to cope with the demand, with an average of three people a day contacting him looking for work.

And he believes that more retailers will follow his lead and move into the new retail space that has become available as others take over their former premises, opening up new business opportunities in the process.

Having invested a big sum of money in the new shop, Mr. Booth will be sticking to the business model which has served him well so far, focusing on California style brands such as surfing and skateboard gear which fit in with the Bermuda market. In fact in the past three weeks, he sold 30 skateboards.

"I believe that you have to always offer competitive prices and be in a prime location to do well," he said.

"I hope that we are going to pick up some new business from tourists, building on our main local customer base."

Mr. Booth said that while Reid and Church Streets remained the prime locations for retail, Front Street could return to being a venue for local traders if the tourist trade continued to drop off at its current rate.

The Booth will be open between 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday.