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Woodland Mall to get $100 Million makeover

GVSUChris

By GVSUChris
in Grand Rapids

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MJLO City

MJLO

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, GRLaker said:

 

 Rivertown may never be the mall of the wealthy for the area, but it is located in a nice community and the Chicago Drive Dutch are far from poor...They just aren't quick to part with their money ;) 

Agreed haha.  However retail brands and developers just look at numbers on paper.  On paper Eastern Kent County looks upscale and buji,  Western Kent County looks more stable newer suburban.  If the asterisk could be added to those numbers that the target demographic comes from (*an ideology where they are more likely to step over a dime to pick up a 20 cent coupon,) Rivertown may never have been built lol :D

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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28 minutes ago, joeDowntown said:

I hope so. It won't be THAT big but I've heard they will have a 2nd story for training. I'm hoping it gets the "glass" stairway treatment that other Apple Stores get. 

I heard that PREIT owns a high end mall in NJ and basically, if you want in that mall, you need to put a store in Woodland too (nice that they have leverage). So they are pushing out some of the marginal stores and going for the high end. I think eventually, the difference between Woodland and Rivertown (in upscale retailers) will be easily noticed. 

Joe

 

like MJLO said, there is definitely enough room for two malls in GR (if not more). I think malls need to keep reinventing themselves, but I doubt either mall is in trouble. And while Woodland has the demographics for upscale, the overall growth of The south end can't be understated. Seems like plenty to go around. 

Joe

Must be this one? Philly suburbs (NJ):

https://www.preit.com/properties/mall-portfolio/cherry-hill-mall/

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GRLaker Hamlet

GRLaker

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14 minutes ago, MJLO said:

Agreed haha.  However retail brands and developers just look at numbers on paper.  On paper Eastern Kent County looks upscale and buji,  Western Kent County looks more stable newer suburban.  If the asterisk could be added to those numbers that the target demographic comes from (*an ideology where they are more likely to step over a dime to pick up a 20 cent coupon,) Rivertown may never have been built lol :D

:rofl: That description is brilliant. I love it.

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GRLaker Hamlet

GRLaker

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14 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

Rivertown also has the benefit of being right on the border of one of the fastest growing areas in the State, the Ottawa/Kent Co border. Just population growth alone will keep it going, because for those people, there's really nowhere else to go for "mall shopping" without trekking all the way across the metro area. 

Quite right. Hudsonville, Georgetown Twp, Byron Center, and Zeeland are showing no signs of decreasing in growth anytime soon.

I'd like to see Woodland go all out with the new look. Take the roof off the walkways and add heated brick walkways and heating lamps throughout. 

IMG_0760.JPG

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RegalTDP Burg

RegalTDP

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19 hours ago, x99 said:

All the Sears speculation is interesting, but there's a possible little caveat... Remember way back when Kmart went bankrupt and Sears bought them?  As I recall, the best asset Sears had was real estate it owned and long term leases it had on real estate that were way below market.  It is not uncommon in commercial leasing for major pieces of real estate to do leases that extend for decades with decades worth of options on top of that.  Bankruptcy, as I recall, allowed Kmart to extact a lot of value from those leases they otherwise would not have been able to. So even if Sears goes in the dumpster and files a Chapter 11, there's still a big question mark about what that would do.  How much leverage any mall owner has is a pretty big question mark at this point.  Even if Sears goes bust, it doesn't mean they will turn over the keys...

Throughout the hundreds of Sears's store closings the past decade, typically it's been a case of the store closing once the lease is up.  Obviously I don't know when the Woodland Sears' lease ends, but I'm sure PREIT is basing their plans on that.

I agree with MJLO - Rivertown isn't going anywhere (though it could use some maintenance).  Woodland's been upping its game for a few years now, and we have room in our market for both a first-tier and second-tier mall.

 

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x99 Burg

x99

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13 hours ago, MJLO said:

Woodland and it's anchors are turning 50 in about 18 months.  Contrary to your impression, Sears was purchased by Kmart in 2004.  Ed Lampert and company have never been able to stop the decline of those brands no matter what they have tried.  I would be surprised if Sears lease terms were longer than 50.  I would also be surprised if PREIT were going public with plans without working out those details.  330,000sf is larger than any other Michigan department store outside of metro Detroit. Since Macy's closed the location at Northland mall it very well could be the largest department store in Michigan.  With their current downsizing model it's likely in their best financial interest to get out of that albatross.  I'm not sure why it would be in their interest to shudder a location and then not allow redevelopment.   

Technically I suppose that's sort of true...  It was a screwy deal with Lampert (who was Sears largest stakeholder) buying Kmart, then selling some Kmart stores to Sears, then using "Kmart Holdings" to buy Sears, then changing the name of the whole works to "Sears Holdings".  So, I supposed Sears Holdings f/k/a Kmart Holdings technically bought Kmart, and then bought Sears.  Anyone in the mood for a nice big glass of clear as mud? 

The important part:  Lampert just said he's going to keep dumping cash into Sears.  So maybe they'll dump cash into the Woodland location.  Or maybe they'll cut and run if the lease is nearing term.  Who knows.  Everyone was pretty much banking on a bankruptcy filing early this year, and just this afternoon they basically said "isn't happening" and drafted up a $500 million line of credit.

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wmrharris Whistle-Stop

wmrharris

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The de-making at Breton Village is another part of the upscale shopping mix. The liability of the mall is the struggle for experience in shopping. The smaller, perhaps more intimate scale of Breton Village provides an antidote. The East Paris stores have threatened but don't seem to have the same vibe.

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GRLaker Hamlet

GRLaker

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49 minutes ago, wmrharris said:

The de-making at Breton Village is another part of the upscale shopping mix. The liability of the mall is the struggle for experience in shopping. The smaller, perhaps more intimate scale of Breton Village provides an antidote. The East Paris stores have threatened but don't seem to have the same vibe.

Add the new shopping area at Knapp and East Beltline...Woodland will have a lot of competition for the EGR/Forest Hills crowd in the crowd's own backyards.

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MJLO City

MJLO

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1 hour ago, x99 said:

The important part:  Lampert just said he's going to keep dumping cash into Sears.  So maybe they'll dump cash into the Woodland location.  Or maybe they'll cut and run if the lease is nearing term.  Who knows.  Everyone was pretty much banking on a bankruptcy filing early this year, and just this afternoon they basically said "isn't happening" and drafted up a $500 million line of credit.

Perhaps they are going to "re-brand Sears" yet again.  There's still room in that retail corridor for Sears to have a presence.  I would imagine in order for a Sears location to cash flow (let alone be profitable) It would need to operate in a facility one quarter the size.   There's no way it generates anywhere near the customer traffic needed to keep that beast as it is.  I didn't look super close at the PREIT plans,  does it erase the presence of Sears all together?

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walkermat Crossroads

walkermat

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On 12/29/2016 at 5:40 PM, joeDowntown said:

Yep. Cherry Hill is the mall they tie a lot of new leases to. Want a store in Cherry Hill? Open a store in Woodland too (good strategy actually). 

Joe

Yep, this is a common REIT strategy, referred to as a "piggyback" lease. However Woodland Apple is always busy so I'm sure it wasn't a hard sell to Apple.

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MJLO City

MJLO

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9 hours ago, WMrapids said:

Seems like Macy's is having some trouble too, though no local stores are closing.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2017/01/04/macys-identifies-68-stores-close/96169742/

Macy's is still a bit over built.  After Dayton's bought Hudson's, bought Marshall Fields.  Sold by Target to May's, bought by Federated, consolidated all brands under the Macy's nameplate in the Mid 90's through mid 00's.  It's confusing as hell, but there are still quite a few redundancies out there.  There are still some malls left with 2 Macy's as anchors.  Without know what locations are closing I would bet more than a few are stil redundancies.

Edit:  It's amazing what I find out when I do a google search :D : http://www.businessinsider.com/list-of-macys-stores-closing-2017-1

4 Stores closing in Michigan:  Macy's at Eastland and Westland Mall in Metro D,  both locations are rapidly approaching 60 and larger than the 330k ft Sears.  Both of these mall are in the Inner ring and haven't been surrounded by a population that can support them for a while.  The other 2 are the location in the Lansing Mall, which is 10 miles away from the location at more upscale Meridian Mall, making it redundant for a metro area of less than half a million.  The 4th location is the Battle Creek location.

What I found interesting is that there are 2 locations closing in what are regarded as quite healthy downtown cores.  The Portland Oregon location, and the Iconic location in Downtown Minneapolis that opened in 1902.  That location was the original Dayton's Department store, which if anyones a nerd like me knows in the 1960's this store opened up a discount retailer called "Target".  They bought the iconic Michigan department store chain Hudson's in 1969.  Target became the parent brand to the parent in the 90's and divested in their upscale department store brands sometime around 04.  (Don't ask me why I know this stuff,  I wish I had this kind of knowledge on the local development scene,  I may need to find a hobby)

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GRJohn Unincorporated Area

GRJohn

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8 hours ago, getemngo said:

PREIT confirms the addition of Von Maur without mentioning them by name:

https://investors.preit.com/2017-01-04-PREIT-Announces-Plans-to-Recapture-Three-Sears-Stores#assets_3

The press release also mentions that dumping Sears and Kmart stores is, unsurprisingly at this point, a net positive for their malls.

Is it a certainty that it will be Von Maur?  I thought that was just a name that was thrown into our collective speculations.  

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GRLaker Hamlet

GRLaker

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Just now, GRJohn said:

Is it a certainty that it will be Von Maur?  I thought that was just a name that was thrown into our collective speculations.  

They showed Von Maur in a floor plan for future development along with either Dick's or Golf Galaxy. 

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thebeerqueer Burg

thebeerqueer

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, getemngo said:

PREIT confirms the addition of Von Maur without mentioning them by name:

https://investors.preit.com/2017-01-04-PREIT-Announces-Plans-to-Recapture-Three-Sears-Stores#assets_3

The press release also mentions that dumping Sears and Kmart stores is, unsurprisingly at this point, a net positive for their malls.

More good snooping!

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GR8scott Burg

GR8scott

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Posted

 The only downside I see to those plans is that both Dicks and golf galaxy are already located within five minutes from Woodland, meaning one of them will have an empty store in the area soon. I would much rather see Another new brand to the area brought in!

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ctpgr34 Hamlet

ctpgr34

Posted
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2 hours ago, wingbert said:

I tell you what, any time I passed through that Sears at Woodland I felt like I was in time warp.  It's a shame but not a surprise.  They should spin the Craftsman part off into its own (much smaller) stand-alone store.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/82b6e496-49e5-3486-a00f-c8120f46f8e0/ss_sears-sells-craftsman-brand.html

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