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Shopping Centers Today -> April 2004
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MALL DEVELOPERS TURNING TO LIFESTYLE CENTERS
BY IAN RITTER
MIAMI — As lifestyle centers grow in popularity, traditional-mall developers are increasingly anxious to get in on a good thing, said speakers at ICSC’s second annual Conference on Open-Air Centers in February.
The appeal of lifestyle centers to both consumers and tenants has translated into some equally appealing sales numbers. The average lifestyle center gets $400 per square foot, versus $330 per square foot for regional malls, the speakers said.
This year 600 people attended the conference, double the number at last year’s conference in Chicago.
“The [mall developers] are taking a hard look at them,” said Jeffrey R. Anderson, CEO and president of lifestyle developer Jeffrey R. Anderson Real Estate, Cincinnati, which has built four lifestyle centers so far, and has another four in the pipeline.
Over the past year Simon Property Group and General Growth Properties, the country’s two largest mall developers, have both announced a series of lifestyle-themed open-air centers. There are currently about 100 lifestyle centers in the United States, up from only 30 or so in 2002, according to the ICSC Research Quarterly.
“The open-air center is the common denominator today for development,” said Michael E. McCarty, CLS, president of Simon’s community center division.
Part of the allure is the relative ease of building this type of center, said Anderson. Whereas a mall might take up to five years to build, a lifestyle center can go up in as little as a year. This reduced lead time makes them particularly attractive to retailers who like to be able to expand while their concepts — and the economy — are still hot, Anderson said.
But to stay vital and keep growing, lifestyle centers need to change with the tastes of consumers, noted Fred Collings, CLS, SCSM, director of retail leasing at RED Development, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Yet, some grocery-anchored projects are feeling the heat, however good things may seem for lifestyle centers. David Henry, Kimco Realty Corp.’s vice chairman, noted that the largest retailer in the world opens, on average, one new Supercenter per day. And with the opening of each Supercenter, he said, two grocery stores go dark. “It’s a relentless trend.”
 | Current Issue October 2008 |