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Shopping Centers Today -> October 2003
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HISPANIC STORES GIVE PLAZA FIESTA MUCH TO CELEBRATE
RAM Development, a firm that’s “as Anglo as it gets,” according to one executive, stumbled into an opportunity to build a mall for Atlanta’s Hispanic community.
But the experience of building and managing Plaza Fiesta, which bills itself as “Georgia’s only Latin American mall,” has proven so rewarding that locally based RAM may expand its business focus, which had previously been trained on big-box projects.
In 1998 RAM bought a half-vacant, 350,000-square-foot center in Atlanta, expecting to raze it and build a power center. But the company soon learned that the burgeoning local Hispanic population had a “demand for a place they could call their own, with clean bathrooms, good security, something for the children — a place you could bring your family,” said Doug McMurrain, a partner at RAM.
Retaining the Burlington Coat Factory and Marshalls, RAM gutted the 150,000-square-foot interior, making way for an indoor playground and a flea market designed as a village, with a fountain and 12-by-12-foot stalls. Vendors, who are on month-to-month contracts, represent every ethnicity, but all of them speak Spanish. RAM also converted a vacant four-screen cinema into an events venue, the DeKalb Atlanta Centre, now used for concerts and community activities. Also on-site are a food market and a prenatal care clinic, soon to be joined by pediatric health, dental and vision centers.
“It’s an incredibly management-intensive project, but the most fun I’ve had in this business in 17 years,” McMurrain said. “We’ve hit a home run with the Hispanic community — a great sector to cater to. They’re hard-working people with strong family values, and they will continue to be a significant factor in our economy. We hope to do more.”
— N.C.
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