One of The Prime Outlets’ top tenants, The North Face, is closing, after its parent company, VF Corp., began shutting down its discount stores to reposition its brand. The outlet store, which had sold items below retail prices to Bend residents for almost three years, plans to close Jan. 5.

”Any time a high-profile store closes, it’s a shock to the mall,” said Ron Audette, senior general manager of The Prime Outlets. ”(The North Face) certainly does bring a lot of shopping traffic.”

Attracting The North Face to Bend in January 1999 had been a major coup for the outlet mall. The Prime Outlets management had done its demographic research and made the mall a center for discount outdoor apparel. The North Face had joined Columbia Sportswear, Nike, Eddie Bauer and L.L. Bean in a retail dream team for the sporting consumer.

Three years later, VF Corp. decided to cut many of its outlets and take its brand back into a higher price range.

In the Greensboro, N.C.-based company’s most recently reported quarter, sales of its domestic outdoor and image wear such as The North Face, Eastpak and JanSport were flat. Over the past year, VF Corp. has taken aggressive actions to improve its cost structure by cutting low-margin operations such as its North Face outlets.

Audette said The Prime Outlets’ management, Prime Retail, based in Baltimore, will be looking to replace it with a women’s apparel store, such as a Jones New York, a Casual Corner or a Dress Barn.

”We don’t like to lose names like The North Face, but it gives us time to adjust our market,” he said. Another outdoor gear replacement store would make the outlets’ offerings ”too lopsided,” Audette added.

Speculation that outdoor gear retailer REI is looking for a suitable space in Bend is true, but such a presence is still considerably far into the future, the company said Tuesday. With tourism and recreation becoming the top revenue industry in Central Oregon, many Bend residents considered it a fertile home for REI.

”We don’t have any immediate plans for a store in Bend, but are evaluating and looking at the Bend market,” said Mike Foley, a spokesman for REI. The real estate arm of REI has been surveying the lease market in Bend to determine its fitness for a new store, he said, but nothing has been signed. Realistically, an REI store in Bend would be two to three years out, Foley said.

In the near term, REI is concentrating on Portland, with plans of opening a store in the Pearl District in 2004, a relocation of its Jantzen Beach store.

Kevin Max can be reached at kmax@bendbulletin.com.