It's been just over five years since the International Council of Shopping Centers published "Envision 2020" - a landmark study (full disclosure: I directed the study) demonstrating the need for malls to completely reinvent themselves in an Amazon-dominated retail world. The consensus among industry leaders around the globe at that critical moment in time was clear: transform or disappear. Poster Children Certainly, over the past half-decade or so, there have been some impressive mall transformations - properties where entertainment, leisure …
JC Penney: Another Rescue Effort
Alas...JCPenney was rescued from Chapter 11 by two of its largest landlords this week. Simon Property Group and Brookfield Asset Management now have the responsibility of managing Penney's unwieldy fleet of 690 stores (following the imminent closure of another 146)...many at least 20 years past their prime and continuing to fade away in the public consciousness. A Fool's Folly? The question must be asked: Why would two of the world's largest and most respected shopping center owner/developers commit $692 million, and an unspecified amount of …
American Dream: Tale of Two Malls
It's been 16 years since the American Dream mega-mall began development in the New Jersey badlands of East Rutherford, hulking over the New Jersey Turnpike like a metal and concrete pterodactyl. During that time, owners have come and gone, the State of New Jersey has cowered under the weight of over $1 billion in incentives and bonds . . . and the shopping center industry has fundamentally and forever changed. Now, Triple Five Group, the current developer and owner of the famed Mall of America near Minneapolis, has promised a firm opening …
Manhattan’s Retail Transformation
It is apparent to any pedestrian strolling through midtown Manhattan that New York's retail real estate industry is in a state of crisis. Just count the number of long-empty storefronts along premium thoroughfares like Fifth and Madison Avenues on the East Side and Bleecker Street and environs in the West Village, and you will be overcome by a feeling of hands-up despair. So much consumer spending power . . . and yet so many spirit-killing vacancies. What's Going on Here? Clearly, a transformation of Manhattan street retail is underway. But …
Who Says “B” Malls Don’t Have a Future?
In the current highly challenging shopping center environment, it sometimes seems that any property below "A-Grade" is regarded as destined for failure. The current mantra, voiced repeatedly by financial media, is that A-malls will be the long-term survivors of the retail apocalypse, while B- and C-level malls will be washed away by the competing forces of online shopping and millennial indifference. I beg to differ. First, let's understand that the generally held assumptions about mall quality levels are most commonly linked to their …
The Future of Shopping Centers Is Happening…in Edina?
Edina, Minn. (pop. 51,000) is an unlikely spot to host the rebirth of the shopping center industry. This quiet and very upscale suburb is known mostly as an affluent bedroom community of Minneapolis, as well as for the garage charger gadgets residents use to jump-start their cars in the frigid Minnesota winters. But Edina could very likely be the launch point for the next generation of shopping centers. Southdale Center, a Simon Properties center in Edina which opened in 1956 and bills itself as the "oldest, fully enclosed, …
The Future of Shopping Centers Is Happening…in Edina?Read More
Shopping Centers: The New Downtowns
The retail real estate world has gone full circle. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, the emergence of large regional shopping centers resulted in the decimation of downtown shopping districts as customers flocked to the climate-controlled comfort and convenience of enclosed malls. Some 50 years later, we are now confronted with the retail apocalypse...and the vulnerability of those massive properties which displaced neighborhood shopping over half a century ago. And yet, the most creative mall owners have discovered that the way back to the …
Bellevue Collection Had It Right – 50 Years Ago
I have been focusing on newly hatched properties which personify the live-in, work-at, dine-out destinations that will be the hallmark of successful shopping centers as we move towards 2020 and beyond. And I have made the point that these types of centers, when done right, can generate the rebirth and renewed prosperity of urban cores – in both large cities and small municipalities alike. Turns out Kemper Freeman had it right...over 50 years ago! Kemper is chairman and CEO of Kemper Development Company, a third-generation privately owned …