Towerful

MTS Inc. (West Sacramento, Calif.), the owner and operator of the Tower Records retail chain, will open its new U.S. flagship store at Sherman Oaks (Calif.) Galleria on Friday, November 16.

The two-story, 33,000-square-foot space is double the size of the store it replaces, which was on Ventura Boulevard. It features a 400-square-foot newsstand section, a performance stage, two DVD viewing stations and four Savage Beast Kiosks, designed to make personalized music recommendations.. The new store is also the first Tower location to host a Super Audio CD demonstration showroom. Its 150,000 CDs can be sampled via 69 listening stations.

“This project has been in the works for the last two years,” says president and ceo Michael Solomon, son of MTS founder and chairman Russell Solomon. “It's the largest Tower store on the West Coast.”

Tower Records owns and operates 173 stores worldwide, with 57 franchise operations in seven countries. Its Tower.com web site was named “Best Music Commerce site” by Forrester Research in fall 2000. The company recently founded its own exclusive record label, 33rd Street Records, to release popular and niche-driven music.