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Shopping Centers Today -> January 2003
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RAZING THE ROOF
Taubman brings its upscale format into the open air
By Susan Thorne
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Taubman Centers, noted for its upscale malls, is doing something it has never done before: building an open-air center. Moreover, as it has done with some of its more prestigious malls, the company is putting its own signature on the format, building what it calls a “fashion park.”
Stony Point Fashion Park, an open-air center with department store anchors, is scheduled to open Sept. 18 in Richmond, Va. The roughly $300 million project will be a 690,000-square-foot, village-type center with three department stores, including a Saks, and up to 90 other stores. Stores are to be single-story except for the anchors, which will have two levels. All the structures will be organized around central pedestrian walkways and plazas, with parking restricted to the center’s perimeter.
“It is a kind of hybrid between the super-regional mall and the lifestyle center, and we feel it can suit some changing demographic and lifestyle needs,” said Steve Kieras, group vice president of development at Taubman. “Like everyone in the industry, we’ve been looking at this approach because it has been done successfully in some other places.”
The format is partly in response to the shorter visits shoppers are making to centers. Stony Point’s more intimate scale and Main Street layout are suited to a quick trip, Kieras said, although the extensive retail lineup offers the potential for more extended visits.
“People can come, hit a few stores and then leave if they want to, or they can shop like at a normal regional shopping center,” he said. The merchandise mix will be wide-ranging to encourage both everyday shopping and “better shopping” excursions, and the mall will also position itself as a dining destination, with four full-service restaurants. The high-fashion component and the presence of Saks Fifth Avenue as anchor (the retailer’s second store in Virginia) are a good fit with the affluent neighborhoods that surround the Stony Point site. Other retailers include Coach, Louis Vuitton and Brooks Bros.
The open-air format will also be a good fit for southern Virginia’s mild climate, Kieras pointed out.
Taubman’s fashion park format in Richmond is a customizing of the regional mall for a particular set of specific market conditions, Kieras said, emphasizing that this doesn’t signal his company’s abandonment of the regional mall concept.
“We look at each site individually and talk about various design scenarios,” he said. “This is just another avenue to approach the customer.”
The presence of department stores sets the project apart from non-anchored town center projects, which he describes as “just collections of shops.” Stony Point is designed in the shape of an “L,” with Saks Fifth Avenue and a fountain court plaza at the central junction. Fashion tenants will be grouped along one arm of the “L” leading toward Dillard’s, while specialty lifestyle retailers will be positioned along the other walkway, with Galyan’s at the end. The two areas will be executed with subtle design differences, Kieras said.
“As you turn the corner, you will experience changes in the walkway width, landscaping, paving and types of store, so that you won’t have the same experience the entire length of the center like a typical regional mall,” he explained. As for overall styling, the center will take inspiration from Richmond’s architectural heritage, using such elements as wrought-iron gateways, but will not attempt to re-create a period look.
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Taubman is familiar with the Richmond market through its operation of Regency Square, an older, 850,000-square-foot mall on the northeast side of town. The company concluded that the city of 1 million inhabitants was underserved by retail, Kieras said, as evidenced by the 90-minute drive north many people make to the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., for occasional shopping.
Taubman is not the only developer to recognize the area’s potential. In northwest Richmond, construction is under way on Short Pump Town Center, a 1.1 million-square-foot, open-air project by Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises set to open the same month as Stony Point (SCT, September 2002). The two have been in hot competition for tenants, noted Rob Black, a vice president and director of retail sales at the Richmond office of retail property consulting firm CB Richard Ellis. Taubman, for example, won over Galyan’s, which had originally considered the Forest City project. In addition, Taubman mounted a drawn-out legal challenge against the issuance of municipal bonds for infrastructure improvements around Short Pump, which has held up that project.
Ultimately, both projects are likely to prosper, Black said, noting that Richmond’s underdeveloped retail offerings have generated plenty of demand.
“Richmond is behind Charlotte, N.C., which is about the same size,” he said. “And even Birmingham, Ala., [population 250,000] has had a Galleria for years.” Furthermore, the two centers will serve different markets, with Stony Point being more boutiqueish than Short Pump, he said. Short Pump is closer to the traffic of Interstate 295, while Stony Point, about five miles from its rival, is just south of the James River in an upscale residential area. There is also strong demand from retailers for tenant premises in Richmond, Black added. The malls will bring in a number of retailers new to the region, such as Lord & Taylor and Nordstrom, both of which are to anchor Short Pump, Dillard’s and Galyan’s. “We’re finally getting on people’s radar,” Black observed. “I think it will be a good thing for Richmond.”
Stony Point could be the first of several Taubman variations on the regional mall model.
“We are open to the idea of these in the future,” said Kieras. “We are in the early feasibility stage of considering two or three locations where we may utilize something similar to Stony Point, but the design could be quite different depending on the market.”
Kieras said he sees the fashion park approach as a logical extension of Taubman’s activities.
“I think this is not far from what we do best, that is, regional and super-regional malls,” he said. “There are cases where a super-regional might not be the best option because of the site, the size of the market or a market niche that needs filling.”
He cautioned, however, that this does not signal a large-scale shift in Taubman’s orientation. “We don’t believe that the regional mall is dead.”
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