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Shopping Centers Today -> August 2002
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EAST CHASE BRINGS UPSCALE SHOPS TO MONTGOMERY
By Karen M. Kroll
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| Built on Montgomery’s affluent east side, many of East Chase’s tenants will be new to the market, relieving many shoppers of a 90-minute drive to Birmingham. |
Residents living on the eastern side of Montgomery, Ala., have plenty of money, but they have to travel quite a ways to spend it. The nearest Ann Taylor, for instance, is 90 minutes upstate, in Birmingham, while Atlanta is a two-hour drive.
The Shoppes at East Chase, however, a lifestyle center opening Nov. 7, is designed to solve the problem, say its developers.
“There is some pent-up demand in Montgomery and the surrounding areas for this shopping component,” said Kevin Ketzler, vice president of real estate at Montgomery-based Alfa Cos.
Alfa and Jim Wilson & Associates, also of Montgomery, formed a 50-50 joint venture to get East Chase off the ground. Alfa is part of Alfa Mutual Insurance Cos., which does business in the Southeastern United States, while JW&A operates eight shopping centers, several office buildings and hotels, and a chain of tire stores throughout the same region.
The 200,000-square-foot, open-air center is the first phase of a mixed-use development that will eventually include an office park, additional retail and upscale apartments.
“We’re going for the upper-end customer,” said Will Wilson, JW&A’s vice president of development and son of company founder Jim Wilson. The area surrounding the center is one of the more affluent in the city, he added.
According to JW&A, average household income within five miles of the East Chase center is $84,000, compared with about $61,000 for the entire metropolitan area. Homes in the neighborhoods immediately adjacent boast an average value of just over $200,000, and the total population within a 10-mile radius nears 200,000.
The tenant list, which reflects the surrounding demographics, includes Banana Republic, The Children’s Place, Victoria’s Secret and Williams-Sonoma. “We tried to raise the bar in bringing in these tenants,” said Wilson.
The mall could not be merely another traditional shopping center, as Montgomery already has two and wouldn’t be able to support another, said Wilson. More than half of its national names are new to the area, which will help residents do more of their shopping locally.
The anticipated customer profile and upscale setting proved irresistible to at least one tenant. “We like to think of ourselves as a lifestyle store,” said Charlie Kinnucan, president of the eponymously named Kinnucan’s, a small chain of higher-end casual clothing, decorative accessories and outdoor gear. “Our products are focused on what educated, active people like to buy to wear and decorate their homes.
Kinnucan’s 10,000-square-foot store at East Chase will be the company’s third. Kinnucan said he has debated for some time just what types of expansion opportunities make sense for his company. Neither traditional enclosed malls nor strip centers provide the most complementary mix of tenants, and building stand-alone stores can be risky.
Lifestyle centers such as East Chase fit the bill. “We can maintain our own identity but at the same time be part of a larger mix of retailers,” said Kinnucan. The merchants in East Chase should appeal to the type of customers his stores attract, he explained.
Another feature the center has going for it is easy access from the freeway, say the developers. Shoppers can quickly get to it from several exits off Interstate 85. To make the project as easy to get to as possible, Alfa and JW&A built about three miles of five-lane roads and interchanges connecting the property with the freeway.
The developers closed on the site in March 2000 and began building the access roads about a year later, said Ketzler. They broke ground on the center in October 2001.
The center’s architecture reflects the idea of an open-air, Main Street shopping area. The building materials include stucco, brick and cast stone. The roofs are made of weathered metal, and walkways are dotted with fountains, bronze structures, trees and street lamps. More than a quarter of the development is set aside for landscaping, trees or lakes.
The project’s location in the hometown of both developers influenced the development also. “Our offices are in the backyard of this development,” said Wilson. “We’re putting our best foot forward in terms of the amenities.”
The Shoppes at East Chase, comprising some 200,000 square feet and about 40 stores, will have 10 or so stores added in the spring of 2003. Several months after that, a power center component of about 500,000 square feet is expected to open. Future additions to the development include an apartment complex and 1.5 million square feet of office space.
Development costs for the Shoppes at East Chase are topping $50 million. The price tag to develop the entire complex will be between $250 million and $300 million, said a JW&A official.
Will it get its money back? While the national economy remains somewhat tenuous, Montgomery appears to be holding its own. It is the capital of Alabama and also has two large hospitals: Baptist Health and Jackson Hospital. Nearby is Maxwell Air Force Base, which employs some 15,000 people. In addition, Hyundai Motor Co. is building a $1 billion plant near the city. Other plants that will build components to support the main factory are also planned.
Retailers certainly appear confident. By opening day the center should be fully leased and about 90 percent open, according to Wilson.
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