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Shopping Centers Today -> August 2002
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MILLS CORP. ON WINNING STREAK
By Donna Mitchell
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The Mills Corp. has had a good summer so far, making progress on a number of development fronts. In June the Arlington, Va.-based developer broke ground on St. Louis Mills, a 1.1 million-square-foot, $250 million value megamall in Hazelwood, Mo. And the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has finally completed an environmental impact statement for Mills’ proposed $1 billion Meadowland Mills development on the Empire Tract in Carlstadt, N.J., bringing the long-delayed project a step closer to getting permit approvals.
But the company won a particularly gratifying victory in Chicago this summer, when the city picked Mills to develop a mixed-use project on Block 37, a vacant downtown site. The company beat out several leading developers for the project, located at 108 N. State St., including General Growth Properties, the John Buck Co. and Thomas J. Klutznick Co., a company that developed the hotel and retail project at 730 N. Michigan Ave. These were among 10 respondents to a “request for qualifications” the city issued in January for proposals to develop the site, which is bordered by Dearborn, Randolph, State and Washington streets.
A year ago Chicago took the project away from a partnership that included JMB Realty Corp., after expressing displeasure with JMB’s plans.
Mills, which will be the project’s master developer, says it is still not certain what tenants will be occupying the site.
“We haven’t scoped out exactly what will be there,” Mills spokesman David D’Onofrio told SCT. “The base of it will be retail and entertainment.”
But the company has named some potential tenants. Mills has teamed with Tucson, Ariz.-based spa operator Canyon Ranch, which is seeking to create a new urban prototype. And another potential tenant is the prestigious London department store Harrods, which has expressed interest in the location, according to Mills.
The Missouri center, meanwhile, which is scheduled to open in the fall of 2003, marks the debut of a marketing alliance with the Public Broadcasting Service, which will host a PBS Kids Pavilion, an entertainment attraction featuring characters from PBS children’s programs.
In yet another development for Mills, the company has assumed full ownership of Opry Mills, Nashville, Tenn., after buying the interest in the 1.2 million-square-foot retail and entertainment complex held by its partner, Gaylord Entertainment. Opry Mills, which opened in May 2000, has 16 anchors and 125 specialty stores.
Gaylord is selling off assets to concentrate on its core hospitality and entertainment business, Jim Brown, Gaylord’s director of corporate communications, told SCT.
The retail REIT paid about $87 million to Opryland Attractions, a subsidiary of Nashville-based Gaylord, for its 33 percent stake in the project. Mills says it financed the deal through a combination of $25.6 million in cash and the assumption of about $56 million in debt.
Meanwhile, work continues on Mills’ development of Piers 27-31, a recreational complex in San Francisco, and on Madrid Xanadú, a retail-entertainment center in Spain.
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