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<\/a>Rendering of the main entrance at Northpark mall in Ridgeland, Miss., which is getting a multimillion-dollar renovation by Pacific Retail Capital Partners. The redevelopment will include entrances, common areas including dining and children\u2019s play zones, restrooms, and interior and exterior landscaping. The goal is to merge the region\u2019s distinct Southern character with timeless and modern design, according to Pacific Retail COO Gary Karl.<\/p><\/div>\n
It\u2019s hard to ignore the headlines screaming \u201cretail apocalypse\u201d these days, particularly when a steady stream of big players go out of business and store closures reach new highs. Cushman & Wakefield reports that major chains closed almost 9,000 stores in 2017, more than double the 2016 total. Retail bankruptcies reached 36 last year, only one shy of the record set in 2009.<\/p>\n
SEE MORE ON THIS TOPIC<\/a><\/p>\n Garrick Brown, Cushman & Wakefield\u2019s national retail research director & vice president for retail intelligence, expects those negative headlines to continue, projecting that as many as 1,000 department stores could shutter their doors by the end of the year. Those closures tend to hit Class B and Class C malls particularly hard.<\/p>\n Rendering of the Eatery, the food court area at Northpark mall in Ridgeland, Miss., which is getting a multimillion-dollar renovation by Pacific Retail Capital Partners. The redevelopment will include entrances, common areas including dining and children\u2019s play zones, restrooms, and interior and exterior landscaping. The goal is to merge the region\u2019s distinct Southern character with timeless and modern design, according to Pacific Retail COO Gary Karl.<\/p><\/div>\n While today\u2019s retail news may seem universally bad to the casual observer, those headlines can be deceiving. Owners are investing millions on makeovers to keep retail centers fresh, inviting, and above all, competitive in an era when consumers\u2019 shopping habits are evolving at lightning speed. Operators are enhancing their retail offerings with pop-ups, grocery chains and off-price stores; expanding food and beverage; adding experiential elements and attractions; and emphasizing health and wellness with offering like fitness centers, juice bars and cycle classes.<\/p>\n \u201cAt most of the centers we\u2019re doing, food and entertainment are a big part of what we\u2019re planning or retrofitting to accommodate<\/em>,\u201d said Kevin Zak, principal at Dorsky + Yue International, a Cleveland-based architectural firm. Its noteworthy retail projects include the redevelopment of the Nanuet Mall in Rockland County, N.Y., into The Shops at Nanuet, an open-air center that features more dining choices and a Fairway supermarket.<\/p>\n As recently as a decade ago, food, beverage and entertainment accounted for only about 10 percent of the typical mall\u2019s space, Brown explained. \u201cThose numbers have doubled to 20 percent as of two years ago and are on their way to 25 percent. Right now they are about 23 percent<\/em>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The exterior entrance to Isabella Eatery, a 41,000-square-foot food hall from Washington, D.C.-area chef Mike Isabella that opened in December at Tysons Galleria in McLean, Va. The food hall has eight eateries, a cocktail bar and a private dining space.<\/p><\/div>\n That tracks with numbers cited by Joseph Coradino, CEO of Philadelphia-based PREIT. \u201cDining and entertainment will be at 25 percent in our businesses in a year, and that number is just going to continue to grow,<\/em>\u201d he reported. At Plymouth Meeting Mall, the REIT\u2019s 948,000-square-foot regional center in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., dining options include Dave & Buster\u2019s, P.F. Chang\u2019s, Benihana, California Pizza Kitchen, Zo\u00ebs\u00a0Kitchen, and Bertucci\u2019s Kitchen & Bar. Highlights of the property\u2019s entertainment attractions range from a 12-screen AMC multiplex to a Legoland Discovery Center and 5 Wits, an immersive, participatory entertainment concept with locations in New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n PREIT is also behind one of the nation\u2019s most ambitious attempts to refresh a retail property: the $325 million makeover of the Gallery into Fashion District Philadelphia, an 838,000-square-foot property featuring retail, designer outlets, dining and entertainment. Two-thirds of the renovated center will open later this year, and the remainder, including an AMC multiplex, will open in 2019.<\/p>\n Escapology, one of the country\u2019s largest escape room franchises, is also expanding to retail centers. The Burnsville Center mall, a 1.1 million-square-foot center in Burnsville, Minn., was set to get the state\u2019s first Escapology franchise in April.<\/p>\n Some malls are adding 4-D rides, also called \u201cflying theaters,\u201d that might seem more at home in a theme park, noted Jeff Green, a veteran retail real estate consultant and principal of Jeff Green Partners. Minnesota\u2019s Mall of America, the largest retail center in the U.S., has FlyOver America. The Shops at Mauna Lani on the Kohala Coast of Hawaii features the state\u2019s only 4-D theater. More malls are adding \u201cdine and recline\u201d theaters or theater owners are retrofitting their spaces for them, he said.<\/p>\n Exterior of Legoland Discovery Center at PREIT\u2019s Plymouth Meeting Mall in Plymouth Meeting, Pa. It\u2019s one of the few Legoland Discovery Centers in the United States and is among the entertainment concepts offered at the mall, which also features a 12-screen AMC Theater and 5 Wits, an escape room concept that has been expanding in U.S. shopping centers.<\/p><\/div>\n Theme park-like entertainment will also be a hallmark of American Dream Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J., when it opens next year after more than a decade of high-profile starts and stops. About 55 percent of the 3 million-square-foot property will consist of entertainment, including a 300,000-square-foot indoor Nickelodeon Universe Theme Park, DreamWorks Waterpark, SEALIFE Aquarium, Legoland Discovery Center, and indoor ski and snowboard park.<\/p>\n Green noted that most of the entertainment concepts are opening in B malls that are looking for creative ways to backfill spaces left behind by department stores. Many combine food, beverages and games in a family-friendly atmosphere like Dave & Buster\u2019s or more recent entries like Round 1 and Main Event.<\/p>\n Punch Bowl Social, which adds karaoke and bocce to that mix, is aimed at Millennials. Considered one of the leaders of the \u201ceatertainment\u201d trend, it is located in the Pioneer Place Mall in downtown Portland and the Circle Centre Mall in Indianapolis, and will be among the offerings at Ballston Quarter in Arlington, Va. Forest City Realty Trust\u2019s redevelopment strategy for the property, formerly known as Ballston Common Mall, calls for allotting about 40 percent of its space for food and entertainment. Offerings will include 5 Wits; Cookology, which offers cooking classes; Nook, an indoor play and learning space for children; and a 25,000-square-foot food hall.<\/p>\n One of the food concepts at Isabella Eatery, a 41,000-square-foot food hall from Washington, D.C.-area chef Mike Isabella that opened in December at Tysons Galleria in McLean, Va. The food hall has eight eateries, a cocktail bar and a private dining space.<\/p><\/div>\n That last ingredient on the menu for Ballston Quarter reflects a growing national phenomenon. \u201cI\u2019m not sure that anything is hotter than food halls. Malls are jumping on it now, and a lot are going the celebrity chef route,<\/em>\u201d Brown said. He cited Beverly Center in Los Angeles, which is in the midst of a $500 million makeover. The property features a food hall curated by chef Michael Mina, as well as Mina\u2019s Cal Mare restaurant on the ground floor. On the East Coast, Tysons Galleria in McLean, Va., recently opened Isabella Eatery, a 41,000-square-foot food hall created by Washington, D.C.-area chef Mike Isabella.<\/p>\n Fashion District Philadelphia will feature food halls at either end of its three-block footprint, Coradino reported: one constitutes a series of independently owned fast-casual restaurants, while the other consists of independently owned, European-themed options. Even malls that aren\u2019t creating food halls are looking for ways to upgrade the traditional food court, often with local and regional fare.<\/p>\n At Eastridge Center in San Jose, Calif., where Pacific Retail Capital Partners recently completed a multimillion-dollar redevelopment, a culinary competition called Taste for the Space brought in 25 local chefs and entrepreneurs to compete for six months’ free rent in the Eatery. The competition resulted in several long-term leases. Pacific Retail, which owns 11 malls across the U.S., also tapped into the local artist community in San Jose and chose four artists to create 20,000 square feet of murals on the building\u2019s exterior.<\/p>\n Local entrepreneurs and brands are also an important part of Pacific Retail\u2019s Paseo Nuevo, an open-air shopping center in downtown Santa Barbara, Calif., where it introduced Popping Up at Paseo, a pop-up shop program in an underutilized common area. The program has increased ancillary income by 71 percent. \u201cPermanent, in-line tenants immediately recognized the synergy the pop-up shop program brought to the center, driving traffic, sales and new shoppers,<\/em>\u201d said Najla Kayyem, Pacific Retail senior vice president.<\/p>\n<\/a>Feeding Frenzy<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Day at the Park<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Halls and Malls<\/h2>\n
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