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PUBLIC-PRIVATE PROJECT OPENS IN LAKEWOOD, WASH.

The owners of Lakewood (Wash.) Mall are planning a vibrant comeback for a retail site, with a helping hand from local officials. MBK Northwest, Portland, Ore., is set to open the retail portion of Lakewood Towne Center next month, a mixed-use facility with shopping, entertainment and civic components.

The center replaces the enclosed, 1.2 million-square-foot Lakewood Mall, which opened in 1989 with national and local anchor tenants that included Mervyn’s and Target. The one-level super-regional never lived up to expectations. Soon after its completion, anchor tenants began leaving, making the mall too weak to attract enough consumer traffic, said David Moore, senior vice president of MBK Northwest. Meanwhile, the Tacoma (Wash.) Mall and the South Hill Mall, Puyallup, Wash., opened, meaning additional pressures from competition. Hence MBK demolished Lakewood Mall after deciding to start over with a new site.

The center will comprise a number of components. The first is a 75,000-square-foot civic center, which opened in November, featuring Lakewood’s first City Hall. The front of the building faces the rest of the center, which features a power center element, with anchors that include Bed Bath & Beyond; Michaels; Old Navy and Target. Other major tenants include Barnes & Noble and Gottschalks. The center will also feature a Petsmart. A neighborhood convenience center is on tap as well, to be anchored by a 64,000-square-foot Safeway Marketplace.

A restaurant and cinema component will round out the project, with a 12-screen Cineplex Odeon and several full-service restaurants.

GENERAL GROWTH PROPERTIES TRYING TO EXPAND ALDERWOOD

General Growth Properties earlier this year filed preliminary development plans to add a 200,000-square-foot open-air expansion to the Alderwood Mall, Lynnwood, Wash., bringing the center to 1.5 million square feet. The plans call for a renovation of the mall’s interior, expansions for anchor tenants J.C. Penney and The Bon Marché, as well as two new buildings, a 144,000-square-foot space for anchor Nordstrom and another for a yet-to-be-named anchor. The addition of the outdoor lifestyle center will, in effect, turn Alderwood into a hybrid center. General Growth needs city approval before the project can proceed.

SOUTH HILL CENTER BENEFITS FROM $25 MILLION MAKEOVER

Gramor Development, Lynnwood, Wash., is on the verge of completing transformation of the old 70,000-square-foot South Hill Center, Puyallup, Wash., into a 134,190-square-foot development anchored by discount retailers Wal-Mart and Good Guys. The $25 million renovation, which will be completed in July, was begun shortly after Gramor purchased the center in November 2001. Other retailers at the redeveloped center include Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy and a Ross ‘Dress For Less’ store.

CRATE & BARREL HELPS BRING KIDS STORE TO UNIVERSITY VILLAGE

The expansion of Seattle’s University Village will mark two retailing milestones for the area: the city’s first Crate & Barrel store and the bricks-and-mortar debut of a manufacturer of upscale children’s home furnishings, Land of Nod.

University Village, a 400,000-square-foot lifestyle center, is undergoing an expansion, with a 70,000-square-foot building anchored by Chicago-based Crate & Barrel. The new structure will also feature the first physical store for Wheeling, Ill.-based Land of Nod. The stores are slated to open in the spring of next year.

Land of Nod, which previously sold its wares only through catalogs and the Internet, formed a partnership with Crate & Barrel last year. Under the agreement, Crate & Barrel will partially own Land of Nod and oversee its store rollout nationwide, said Bette Kahn, a spokeswoman for Crate & Barrel. The partners plan to open a second Land of Nod store near the Crate & Barrel in downtown Chicago.

The University Village expansion will also feature a second Starbucks, a relocated Storables, shelving and storage products store Malama, a salon and day spa, children’s apparel retailer Hanna Andersson and a Johnny Rockets restaurant. Opened in 1957 as a strip center, University Village features such major tenants as Anthropologie, Barnes & Noble and Restoration Hardware.

WESTFIELD SHOPPINGTOWN VANCOUVER PLANS MAJOR EXPANSION

Westfield America, Los Angeles, has begun a 180,000-square-foot expansion of the 25-year-old Westfield Shoppingtown Vancouver (Wash.). The 890,000-square-foot center, which Westfield acquired in 1993 when it was known as Vancouver Mall, will grow to more than 1 million square feet. The $50 million project will feature a new building for anchor Meier & Frank. The 118,000-square-foot space Meier & Frank now occupies will likely be converted to in-line mall space. The renovation, with construction slated to begin late this year or early 2003, should be complete by 2004. The project is the first work done on the mall since a 1993 renovation that added a brighter interior and a new food court.

DEL TACO EYES SEATTLE

West Coast fast-food Mexican chain Del Taco has identified Seattle as its next expansion target, with plans to open 50 restaurants in the area within the next five years. The company is searching for local franchisee partners to help its growth. It says its 2,000-square-foot building concepts can be built easily and serve high volumes, with average unit volumes near the $1 million mark. There are 396 restaurants operating under the Del Taco banner.

REGENCY CENTERS BEGINS HILLSBORO MARKET EXPANSION

Jacksonville, Fla.-based Regency Centers has begun work on the second phase of a 150,220-square-foot shopping center in Hillsboro, Ore. Hillsboro Market Center is a neighborhood center anchored by a 57,000-square-foot Albertson’s supermarket. The project is being developed by the Portland, Ore., office of Regency. This phase will involve 82,980 square feet of retail space, anchored by Marshall’s and Petsmart. International House of Pancakes and Baja Fresh Mexican Grill are among the tenants to be located on outparcels, said Craig Ramey, senior vice president of investments for Regency’s Northwest region. Other tenants will include Starbucks and Great Clips, chains that are commonly found at Regency’s other centers, Ramey said. The project’s first phase opened in August 2001. Besides the Albertson’s supermarket, it has a fuel center, a convenience store and some 6,000 square feet of other shop space. Hillsboro Market Center is located near Northeast Cornell Road and Northeast 28th Street, a busy intersection surrounded by several technology research and development campuses, said Ramey. The second phase is expected to open late this fall.

THE SHOPS AT TANASBOURNE SCRAPPED

Plans for The Shops at Tanasbourne, an upscale shopping center slated for Hillsboro, Ore., have been cancelled. The developer, Rockville, Md.-based Federal Realty Investment Trust, said in early March that it would stop developing mixed-use commercial projects.

“We’re going back to strip shopping centers and grocery-anchored centers,” Kristine Warner, director of corporate communications for Federal Realty told SCT. “We are looking to acquire shopping centers and operating street retail, and may even look to develop grocery-anchored centers.”

The Shops at Tanasbourne was to have been a 420,000-square-foot retail and office complex, with the retail portion anchored by the first Meier & Frank department store in 20 years. Plans for its development had been in the works since 1999.

The lifestyle center was to have comprised six to eight separate buildings, creating a shopping neighborhood of 45 to 60 shops and restaurants. The center would have served the fastest-growing community of Hillsboro, eliminating the need for customers to drive into Portland to shop.

Meanwhile, Federal Realty Investment Trust has announced that CEO Steven J. Guttman will retire in March. Donald Wood, president and COO, will succeed Guttman, who held the CEO post for 22 years. Guttman will remain as chairman, focussing his attention on the opening and operation of Santana Row, a planned urban village in San Jose, Calif.

PAPER WAREHOUSE EXITS SEATTLE

Paper Warehouse, an operator of party supply and paper goods stores, sold its 13 Seattle stores to Party City, saying that the city does not play into its long-term plans. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Minneapolis-based Paper Warehouse continues to operate 141 stores.

J.C. PENNEY UNVEILS NEW CONCEPT AT TACOMA (WASH.) MALL

J.C. Penney, Plano, Texas, has unveiled its new store format at the Tacoma (Wash.) Mall. The center, with its brighter look and racetrack layout, has seen dramatic improvements in just its first few months of operation, according to Penney executives. It now is Penney’s highest-grossing store in the Seattle region. The retailer is calling the new look the “quad wrap,” featuring four cash registers, instead of two, near the store’s doorways and escalators. The strategy is to create a clear pathway and field of vision for customers to view and buy merchandise quickly, Penney says.

FACTORIA MALL TO GET FACE-LIFT

A group of local developers is working to turn the old Factoria Mall, Bellevue, Wash., into Factoria TowneSquare, a mixed-use development featuring retail and housing. Factoria Mall, built in 1979, houses 525,000 square feet of retail. The proposed redevelopment will feature 151,000 square feet of retail, 80,000 square feet of office space and 285 apartments. Anchor tenants for the project will include Nordstrom Rack, Old Navy and Target.

GRANITE INVESTMENTS BUILDING STRIP CENTER IN SPOKANE

Granite Investments, a local developer, is building a 204,000-square-foot center in Spokane, Wash., on a 27-acre site adjacent to a technology park.

The center will be anchored by a 58,000-square-foot Albertson’s grocery store and will feature several full-service restaurants as well as service-oriented tenants such as a bank and a hair salon.

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