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Fixing up mall needn't bust the bank

By Edmund Mander

PHOENIX-- Let's imagine a mall, hardly touched since its construction in the 1970s -- we'll call it the Farrah Fawcett Mall -- and, needless to say, in dire need of a rehab.

The floor is made up of glossy brown tiles, the ceiling is low, and there are certainly no skylights. What light there is comes from flickering fluorescent tubes, and most of it is soaked up by the dull pastel walls and the dark floor.

Stores are narrow and deep, and they are sucking up thousands of dollars of air conditioning a year from your central HVAC system. In the center of the common area is a fountain that you were terribly proud of back in 1974, but which now seldom works.

Oh, but it gets worse: You have limited funds, so tearing the place down and starting anew is out of the question.

Your first impulse is to rip out that shiny brown floor. Ouch! Better be careful, warned Dennis D. Smith, president of Wichita, Kan.-based Law Kingdom Inc., an architectural firm, during a roundtable discussion on cost-effective remodeling at ICSC's Centerbuild Conference, held in Arizona in December. Some of those tiles can be pretty well anchored, and you can damage the sub-surface when pulling them out. Sub-surface damage might not be detectable at first, but can show up six months later when the newly laid tiles start cracking. Better to grind the old surface, rather than shot-blast it, keeping it wet to avoid hundreds of dollars in cleaning bills, Mr. Smith advised.

There's another good reason not to tear up the entire floor, according to Mr. Smith: It's a lot easier and cheaper to replace selected areas with bright colorful new tile and leave the rest in place. This can give the impression of a whole new surface for a fraction of the cost.

Old brown floors are not the only reason 1970s malls look dark, of course. Often the centers are dark, due to feeble fluorescent lighting and the absence of skylights. But before entertaining visions of peeling back the roof and turning the center into some kind of shopping biosphere, consider this, advised John R. Tschiderer, managing director of design and construction at Faison Associates, Bethesda, Md. Skylights are not only expensive to install, they run up some pretty hefty heating and air-conditioning costs. Faison has conducted studies that prove as much.

Another problem with skylights, of course, is that they're not much use on dull, rainy days. "Skylights will only help you when it's a bright, sunny day," Mr. Smith noted.

Artificial lighting, of course, is at your beck and call regardless of the ambient light outside. Moreover, it has come a long way in recent years, and can dramatically transform interior spaces. If you can only invest in one thing during a remodeling, spend it on lighting, Mr. Smith argued.

"The most bang for your buck is lighting," he said. It not only makes the interior look a lot more inviting, but helps it seem a lot safer to shoppers.

Safety is a particular concern in parking decks, and they can be brightened up without a major investment in lighting by applying whitewash to walls and ceilings, said William E. Brigham, an associate at the San Francisco-based Field Paoli architectural firm. Perceived lighting is a lot more important than actual lighting levels, he opined.

That lighting in the outside parking lot will need replacing, too. Not only is it inadequate, but chances are water is seeping into the electrical conduits, said W. Brad Goldsmith, group director (retail) at Atlanta-based Beers Retail. He recommended new 100-foot light poles.

If the presence of water in electrical conduits is the problem outside, it's the lack of water in the fountain that's the headache inside. Fountains are not only a maintenance nightmare, they take up valuable space that could generate sales, according to Mr. Tschiderer.

Replace them with kiosks, mall directories or other lucrative money-earners, agreed Mr. Smith.

Another way to save -- or make -- money is to revamp the air-conditioning system. Packaged air-conditioning systems can be turned into profit generators, with tenants paying the landlord for whatever they consume, Mr. Goldsmith said. Some systems offer multi-zone capability, he added.

Now the essential items are taken care of. The mall looks better, and costs less to operate. Which leaves only one more thing: finding it another name (Jennifer Aniston Plaza?).