 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Shopping Centers Today -> July 2002
 PRINT THIS STORY: |
  CHANGE TEXT SIZE: |
CUTTING-EDGE LIFESTYLE CENTER COMING TO MEXICO CITY
 |
| The retail portion of Los Atrios will be located on a curving, two-level promenade. |
Think of it as a merging of Horton Plaza with the Upper East Side of Manhattan — in Mexico. The colorful urban, open-air design of the Los Atrios mixed-use complex will recall the landmark mall in San Diego, while its location in Polanco, one of the most affluent neighborhoods in Mexico City, will evoke high-end Manhattan life.
Now under construction by locally based Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos and Walton St. Capital, Chicago, Los Atrios will combine retail and entertainment with hotels and office space, on the site of a long-shuttered General Motors plant.
The project will be located at the intersection of Ejercito Nacional and Moliere avenues, near major thoroughfares. Retail, restaurants and entertainment will take up 48,500 square meters (521,957 square feet), with a 12-screen cinema occupying an additional 7,000 square meters. A 200-room five-star hotel will be built above the retail. Gardens, terraces and fountains will be placed throughout the open-air streetscape intended to recall such shopping districts as Rodeo Drive, Madison Avenue and Bal Harbour Shops, Miami Beach.
“This is a lifestyle center with an office component,” with 12,000 square meters connecting to the shopping district, said Sergio Bringas Linage, Los Atrios’ marketing director. Some 3,000 cars will be accommodated underground.
The retail will be located on a curving, two-level promenade that will cut through the existing street grid. Landscaping will be located throughout to encourage pedestrians to walk through. A third level will house the cinemas and the food court.
“We’ve been talking to luxury brands, some already in Mexico, some new to the country,” Bringas said, though none have been announced.
Those brands will find a retailer’s dream market. One-third of the city’s population resides nearby, and more than 500,000 of the 2.8 million affluent shoppers in Mexico City live in the immediate trade area, according to the developers.
“This is the heart of the city, known as a high-income residential area,” Bringas said.
The neighborhood also is home to a number of major cultural institutions, including the Anthropology Museum, the Children’s Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Auditorium and the Tamayo Museum, as well as many art galleries and cinemas. The Chapultepec Castle and the Chapultepec Zoo are located in an area park.
The project will fill a big void in the community. The General Motors factory closed more than 10 years ago when the automaker relocated to a suburban area, and the site remained vacant until Grupo Sordo Madaleno acquired it two years ago.
“The zoning was only for a factory, so it had to be changed,” Bringas explained. The first phase will open in winter 2004; a second phase, to consist of 90,000 square meters of office space and 3,000 parking spaces are also planned.
— D.H.
 | Current Issue November 2008 |