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Shopping Centers Today -> May 2004
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BELZ BROUGHT OUTLET SHOPPERS IN FROM THE COLD
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| Philip Belz |
“It’s important to give consumers a complete shopping experience” even when they’re paying rock-bottom prices for merchandise, notes Groveman.
The Belz name is synonymous in the industry with the legacy of the enclosed outlet center, but retail real estate is only one part of what this company, founded in 1940, does. At first, founder Philip Belz built industrial spaces and warehouses in and around Memphis. Today his son, Jack, is chairman and CEO, while Jack’s sons, Martin and Ronald are co-presidents.
These days, Belz Enterprises owns and manages 25 million square feet of space, including distribution centers, office buildings, residential lofts, apartment complexes and hotels. Its shopping centers include everything from community strip to retail and entertainment centers, such as Festival Bay at International Drive, a 750,000- square-foot development in Orlando, Fla., and Peabody Place, a complex that covers eight square blocks in downtown Memphis.
The Belz family made its name in the world of retail real estate when, in partnership with the family of Kemmons Wilson, founder of the Memphis-based Holiday Inn chain, it opened the 120,000-square-foot Factory Outlet Mall in 1979 in the Memphis suburb of Lakeland. Since then Belz has doubled the center’s size and renamed it Belz Factory Outlet Mall. Over the years, the company has built seven outlet malls, including centers in Las Vegas; St. Augustine, Fla.; and Puerto Rico.
How did they get to be first? “Very few developers in the early days of outlet retailing brought with them the history of building shopping centers,” Groveman said. Most simply chose to build open-air centers.
Industry observers credit John R. Ellis, a Belz executive vice president, with successfully leasing the first enclosed mall. “He’s never met a stranger,” said Groveman, who points out that Ellis is known affectionately throughout the company as the “mayor of the outlet mall industry.”
Like so many shopping center developers, Belz Enterprises sought locations near the exits of interstate highways. Those spots took on particular significance for outlet center builders, which rely on trade with travelers and not just the local population. “In most of our locations, the primary target is tourists,” said Groveman.
Tourism is becoming less important to Belz outlet centers, however, because rapid population growth in many of its locations provides a healthy base of local shoppers, he says.
Nevertheless, the basics of shopping center development that were vital to bringing outlet malls into existence remain in effect as situations shift. “With any new concept, perseverance and being able to overcome challenges are important,” Groveman said. “Developing and maintaining relationships are the key to success.”
Those principles have paid off for Belz Enterprises, he says. “We would like to believe we’ve contributed a little bit to the outlet center industry, and that we’ve had some fun along the way.”
— EM
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