_The Super-Regional Lifestyle Power Center

Monday, November 5, 2007

Representing a more than $100 million investment, the Mall of Louisiana is being "re-merchandized" with adjoining new lifestyle and power centers and also experiencing major changes with retailers.

"Overall, we're shuffling 50 to 60 tenants in the mall with renewals, relocations and new tenants, which is under way now and will continue through 2008," General Manager Todd Denton says. "The timing is good. We’re 10 years old with a lot of 10-year leases expiring this year and in 2008, so we’re able to do a lot of shuffling, renewals and bringing more people in." Denton declined to outline all lease changes, but he did say newcomers would include Forever 21, a national fashion store that will have a two-story-location, Build-a-Bear Workshop and Coach leather goods. Recent additions among the mall’s 150 tenants include Caché women’s fashion, Solstice sunglasses retailer, Swarovski crystal, Perfumania and Alexandria-based Formal Place, a family-owned ladies’ formalwear store.

Among those relocating from the mall to The Boulevard lifestyle center, will be Chico’s Mexican Restaurant and Ann Taylor, a national women’s fashion store. Williams-Sonoma, an upscale store, will stay in the two-story mall but will relocate to its entrance leading to The Boulevard and expand retail space by about 2,000 square feet.

The Boulevard’s 20 to 25 tenants will include Borders bookstore, Sephora beauty store, Clarks shoes, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, and Bravo! Cucina Italiana restaurant. Retailers will open in March, and the restaurants will open two to three months later.

By summer of next year, the yet unnamed power center will open with 10 tenants, including Dick’s Sporting Goods and Circuit City. A power center is typically a smaller shopping area anchored by larger retailers like Lowe’s or PetSmart and accompanied by smaller retailers.

Denton says an expansion has been planned since Montgomery, Ala.-based Jim Wilson and Associates built the 1.2 million-square-foot "super-regional mall" in 1997 on Bluebonnet Boulevard at Interstate 10. The mall was sold in 2004 to Illinois-based General Growth Properties (GGP), the second-largest mall owner and manager in the nation. GGP has since initiated construction of The Boulevard, adding 170,000 square feet of retail, and a power center, adding another 130,000 square feet, all on the same 100-acre site.

"We’re building on a success on a great property," Denton says. "We feel we’ll enhance this for many years to come by developing it in the right way. It’s an exciting, great opportunity for us to expand and become a very dominant retail center in Louisiana."

Expansion plans especially firmed up with completion of the Picardy Avenue extension, which he says considerably improved access to I-10. Growing retailer requests for space coupled with the mall’s 10-year leases expiring also moved the project forward.

Brent Sims, the mall’s marketing manager, adds the expanded complex will offer the best of both worlds with The Boulevard offering consumers a breezeway to stroll while the mall offers an enclosed center in inclement weather.

"This will be the first regional mall that will add on a lifestyle center, movie theater, freestanding restaurants and a power center to offer a one-stop and one-of-a-kind shopping experience," Sims says. "Many of the retailers are first to market and first to state."

Erin Hershkowitz, spokeswoman for the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), agrees it’s the first project she’s heard about that’s "re-merchandizing" a major regional mall by adding a lifestyle center and power center on the same site.

"It sounds really interesting. I could see how it could work because the luxury market is doing really well and people want to see those kind of retailers," Hershkowitz says. "That’s what is so great about this property—you have everything in one. People won’t have to go anywhere else."

The smaller, open-air lifestyle center is the trend. No enclosed malls have been built in the U.S. since the 750,000-square-foot Mall at Turtle Creek opened in Jonesboro, Ark., in March 2006.

"It’s just an evolution in the industry," Hershkowitz says. "Most of them were built in the ’70s and ’80s and then came outlet centers and now many hybrids with lifestyle centers and power centers. These lifestyle centers are being built because people want something different. They’re still going to enclosed malls, but the centers create a different shopping experience. So when you see a mall adding a lifestyle center it makes that property more exciting."

Hershkowitz and Denton say they don’t foresee internal competitive issues with retailers in the expanded development because each store and shopping area has its own niche. Sims also foresees it drawing shoppers beyond the nine-parish area.

Appealing to a continuing strong luxury market, lifestyle centers are usually located in affluent neighborhoods, have upscale specialty stores, convenient parking and direct access to stores as more people research goods on the Internet and want ready access to them, Hershkowitz says. Typically averaging around 50,000 square feet in retail space, they are often a leisure time destination place embellished with features like comfortable common areas and entertainment such as movie theaters.

The Boulevard will encompass a typical lifestyle center with a main street feel that is pedestrian-friendly, Denton says. Stores will line both sides of a common area with waterfalls and seating. They hope to make the entire project retail with an emphasis on fashion apparel, entertainment and sit-down restaurants, which he says they’re doing with addition of Rave Motion Pictures.

THE BOULEVARD:

When completed next year, The Boulevard open-air lifestyle center will feature 20 to 25 tenants with a mix of retail and restaurants.

The lifestyle center is modeled after expansion projects at Woodlands Mall north of Houston and Streets of Southpoint in Durham, N.C. GGP owns both properties, which have tenants that include Pottery Barn, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, Barnes & Noble, Restoration Hardware, Ann Taylor Loft and Panera Bread.

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