The Daily Mall Reader: Tanforan Mall Redevelopment

A daily dose of mall-related reading...

"CASE STUDY: Tanforan Turnaround"

Retail Traffic - September 1, 2005

(Excerpt) The site of the new Shops at Tanforan in San Bruno, Calif. was a retail developer's dream.

Located five miles south of San Francisco, in an area where the average household income is $90,000, it housed an underused mall known as the Tanforan Shopping Center — a real fixer-upper.

Even though the mall was more than 30 years old and half-dark, its Sears anchor was ranked in the top five performing stores nationally, says Greg Wattson, senior vice president of the mall's redeveloper, Wattson Breevast LLC. “We knew that the customers were coming to the mall anchors,” says Wattson. “Our challenge was to make them stay longer and spend time in the mall proper.”

Read the full article here.

The Daily Mall Reader: Vintage Shopping Malls Out Of Fashion?

A daily dose of mall-related reading...

"More competition brings less hope for older, enclosed"

Specialty Retail - July, 2002

(Excerpt) Once-thriving malls across the nation are closing their doors, being demolished, or shutting down entire wings without any concrete plans for redevelopment. These malls, now considered dinosaurs in the retail industry, are battling for business against glitzier, more modern shopping centers, big box retailers, redeveloped main street shopping districts, discounters and entertainment centers.

Traditional malls are undergoing changes of use to storage, university classrooms and new forms of retail. Recently, malls in Landover, MD, Ogden, UT, Muskegon, MI and Johnstown, PA have closed, a mall in Durham, NC is losing its anchor store, while a pair of regional malls in Toledo, OH and one in Oak Ridge, TN are treading water just to stay afloat. A declining mall in Spotsylvania, VA is hoping that the addition of a Costco will help revive the site. The Landover Mall in Landover, MD, once one of the region’s first and largest enclosed shopping malls, closed late May.

Read the full article here.

The Daily Mall Reader: Malls Marketing For The Net

A daily dose of mall-related reading...

"How The Net Is Remaking The Mall'"
To lure Web-savvy shoppers, retailers are turning to "lifestyle centers"

BusinessWeek - May 9, 2005

(Excerpt) The landscape of America is the store. Drive anywhere, and you will see mile after mile of mammoth malls, big-box retailers, and local supermarkets. There are more than 1.1 million retail establishments across the country, an average of one every three square miles.

Now this sprawling tapestry of retail space is being rapidly rewoven. In 2004 developers poured $18 billion into new and renovated enclosed malls, open-air shopping centers, and warehouse stores, up 17% from the previous year. So far, 2005 is ahead of that pace, in part as a response to the continued strength of consumer demand.

But there's something new going on as well: Bricks-and-mortar retailing is furiously recasting itself to compete in the world of the Internet.

Read the full article here.

The Daily Mall Reader: Laurel Mall Redevelopment

A daily dose of mall-related reading...

"New Owners to Bring New Life to Laurel Mall"

Washington Post - Monday, February 5, 2007

(Excerpt) The owners of Laurel Mall last week announced a plan to turn the ailing shopping center into a walkable town center with restaurants, a movie theater and national chain retailers.

The mall has been a sore spot on Route 1 in Prince George's County for years, steadily losing traffic and tenants. Sixteen percent of store space is empty, mall owners said, with Macy's, Burlington Coat Factory and International Furniture Liquidators as anchors.

Last year, real estate investment firms Somera Capital Management of Los Angeles and AEW Capital Management of Boston bought the center for $31 million from Blackstone Group of New York. The mall had encountered financial troubles and was placed in a court-appointed receivership the year before.

Read the full article here.

The Daily Mall Reader: Winrock Center Redevelopment

A daily dose of mall-related reading...

"Winrock's full-circle face lift"
Tired of being called "Windy-Rock," the open-air shopping center got walled-off and air-conditioned in 1975, one of many makeovers since it opened in 1961. But now those walls are coming down.

Albuquerque Tribune Online - August 19, 2002

(Excerpt) Winrock Center has gone through a multitude of phases and changes in its 41 years. Its next big transformation is set to begin soon, with a wrecking ball.

Winrock's owners plan to turn the state's third-largest mall into an open-air, urban-feeling shopping and office complex.

"This is a new trend that, based on consumer demand, we're moving toward," said Shelton Weeks, general manager of the 900,000-square-foot Albuquerque shopping center. "We're moving toward what we would call a new urbanism or what we call a live-work-play environment."

The new "The Avenue-Winrock" will be an open-air center reminiscent of a downtown shopping district. It will have two "avenues" splitting it in three quadrants. At their axis will be a remodeled Dillard's department store.

Read the full article here.

The Daily Mall Reader: Shopping Malls And Consumerism

A daily dose of mall-related reading...

"More competition brings less hope for older, enclosed"

Specialty Retail - July, 2002

(Excerpt) Once-thriving malls across the nation are closing their doors, being demolished, or shutting down entire wings without any concrete plans for redevelopment. These malls, now considered dinosaurs in the retail industry, are battling for business against glitzier, more modern shopping centers, big box retailers, redeveloped main street shopping districts, discounters and entertainment centers. Traditional malls are undergoing changes of use to storage, university classrooms and new forms of retail.

Recently, malls in Landover, MD, Ogden, UT, Muskegon, MI and Johnstown, PA have closed, a mall in Durham, NC is losing its anchor store, while a pair of regional malls in Toledo, OH and one in Oak Ridge, TN are treading water just to stay afloat. A declining mall in Spotsylvania, VA is hoping that the addition of a Costco will help revive the site.

Read the full article here.