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SAINE GETS STRICT, MEN GET A MALL MADE MOSTLY FOR THEM, AND DISCOUNTERS DEAL WITH VENDORS’ MINIMUM PRICEM

An artful collaboration

Developers Diversified Realty Corp. is mixing charity, commerce and culture in a new partnership with Miami-based pop artist Romero Britto. DDR will sponsor Britto Tours America, a traveling exhibition of the artist’s colorful paintings and sculptures that will visit 13 of the firm’s shopping centers across the U.S.

John Kokinchak, the firm’s senior vice president of property management, and other DDR executives were seeking retail tenants in the artsy Miami neighborhood around the 26-acre Shops at Midtown Miami. The area, rife with furniture design and home decor showrooms, is home to Britto’s studio, and Kokinchak happened to be familiar with his work. “The relationship started out of my love and interest in art,” Kokinchak said. “I had admired Britto for a while, after he exploded onto the art scene in the mid-1990s.” Britto agreed to exhibit his sculptures at DDR’s 633,000-square-foot Shops at Midtown Miami, which has Loehmann’s, Target and West Elm as anchors. DDR announced the tour in May, during its yearly party at the ICSC Spring Convention. Some of Britto’s work was displayed and auctioned at the party, raising almost $80,000, which was donated to charity.

The mall tour kicks off this fall and runs through next year, beginning at DDR’s Village at Stone Oak, in San Antonio, continuing to California, Colorado and New Jersey before winding up in Miami. The tour will skirt major metro areas in favor of cities that get less exposure to avant-garde art. “[Britto] is very interested in educating the public to see his art and be exposed to his art,” said Paul Perkins, director of special projects for Britto. DDR plans to open in-line stores and kiosks to sell Britto’s work. “If people fall in love with the art and then are not able to buy it, it’s probably the wrong thing,” Kokinchak said.

Britto said he looks forward to bringing his art to people who might otherwise not be able to see it. “Many people are so busy with the everyday things, families that might not have the means to go see shows and museums,” he said. “But they are all going to the malls. And I felt I needed to bring my art to these people. My work brings joy and happiness, and I think people can relate to it.”

Kokinchak says the venture will not just further DDR’s aesthetic and charitable aims but also make each center more important in the community. “The art is cutting edge and it applies itself well to how our industry is melding with the communities we operate with,” he said. “And it’s a wonderful opportunity to partner with an incredible artist who is concerned about the environment, very concerned about children and education, and as business people, it’s things we should be concerned about too.”

Manly mall

A Sacramento, Calif.-based independent retailer is turning a dormant furniture warehouse into a “man mall,” to compete with big-box chains. John Barritt, owner of Badger John’s Huntin’ Stuff, a hunting equipment store in Sacramento, is moving out of a freestanding store measuring less than 7,000 square feet and into a 93,000-square-foot Breuners furniture showroom that had sat empty for a few years. But Badger John’s will occupy only about 35,000 square feet of that. Barritt plans to sublease the rest to sporting goods or outdoors-related tenants with complementary offerings. His store will function as anchor.

Cycle Gear, a motorcycle and ATV accessories retailer, is ready to sign a 26,000-square-foot lease, while fitness retailer Sacramento Exercise Equipment is set to take 14,000 square feet, says Rick Martinez, the CB Richard Ellis broker helping Barritt sublease. A martial arts studio is in the works too. “I’ve been in this business for more than 20 years, and I’ve never done a deal like this,” Martinez said. “It’s a smaller local tenant with a good niche. He views himself as the Nordstrom of hunting stores, but he didn’t have a Nordstrom-like location. Now he’s moving from being a small retailer that was hard to get to, to having a large regional location.” Badger John’s plans to open a new fishing section and an indoor shooting range. But despite that man-mall theme, the center will welcome women and children too, says Martinez. “Cycle Gear said that as much as 50 percent of their sales are from women,” Martinez said. “The [man theme] will definitely not keep women away.”

‘Price floor’ could affect discounters

The Supreme Court struck down a 96-year-old ban on minimum pricing agreements in June, giving brands the ability to set and enforce minimum prices for their merchandise. The 5-4 ruling is likely to change the relationships between off-price stores, discount retailers and suppliers. Such chains as Burlington Coat Factory, Loehmann’s, Macy’s and Wal-Mart could be affected, sources say, because they sell name-brand goods at the lowest possible prices. “With price competition decreased, the manufacturers’ retailers compete among themselves over service,” Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority. In a dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer countered: “What about malls built on the assumption that a discount distributor will remain as anchor tenant? What about home buyers who have taken a home’s distance from such a mall into account? What about Americans, producers, distributors and consumers, who have understandably assumed, at least for the last 30 years, that price competition is a legally guaranteed way of life?”

Malls a boon to Israel

Malls and shopping centers play an increasingly important role in the lives of Israelis, with malls alone accounting for about 41 percent of the country’s 20 billion shekels ($4 billion) annual shopping revenues, according to a study by the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry. Israel has about 70 malls and 148 shopping centers spread among its 6.2 million people, amounting to 0.31 square meters (3.3 square feet) of shopping space per capita. That is the fourth-highest rate in the world. Malls are most popular with shoppers under 25, who visit about eight times a month on average. The rest of the population visits malls about four times a month. The survey says that 87.7 percent of those under 25 and 70.5 percent of those who are older spend over an hour at the mall.