Shopping malls

[tic404]

are there any plans to build any new shopping malls in the area.

[nitek_of_mobile]

Enclosed shopping malls are pretty much a dying/dead format. Most developers are meeting retail demands with increasingly large regional open-air lifestyle centers.

[AlabamaGuy2007]

Enclosed shopping malls are pretty much a dying/dead format. Most developers are meeting retail demands with increasingly large regional open-air lifestyle centers.

*cough* Bridge Street *cough* Sprawl *cough* EVIL *cough*

[StevenRocks]

Enclosed shopping malls are pretty much a dying/dead format. Most developers are meeting retail demands with increasingly large regional open-air lifestyle centers.

Enclosed malls were overdone, and the new lifestyle centers are headed for the same fate in about five years or so.

[nitek_of_mobile]

I can't wait to see dead lifestyle centers.

[kayman]

^^^That'll happen sooner than you think. I personally like it before lifestyle and power centers were the thing to do in retail. Honestly, I prefer retail centers that combine both the aspects of enclosed and lifestyle better. Kinda like what The Falls at Grants Mills shopping center was suppose to be, but we see now that center may never be built because of over saturation of the southern end of the market with malls and large shopping centers like The Summit, Brookwood Village, Riverchase, Patton Creek, and Colonial Promenade Alabaster. Maybe something like that will come to fruitation in the northern end of the metro.

[Alababy]

I personally don't get the fascination or appeal of the open air centers like The Summit. I don't want to shop somewhere with the elements to slow me down. I don't like going in and out of the heat in the summer; I don't want to get caught in the rain; I don't want to have to wear a jacket and take it on and off when it's cold, etc.

Give me a big ol' retail space that's completely enclosed with a parking deck to boot, and I'm all about it!

Brookwood has managed to retro-fit well to combine the two styles, though.

[StevenRocks]

I'm an enclosed mall fan, hands down.

I prefer quality over quantity in shopping malls. Variety doesn't hurt either.

[nitek_of_mobile]

With department stores either consolidating or otherwise staggering into obscurity, I don't think we'll ever see the resurgence of the traditional enclosed mall format. Specialty retailers such as Williams-Sonoma and The Sharper Image appreciate the increased visiblity their storefronts have to potential customers. Customers, meanwhile, enjoy the convenience of pulling up to their favorite merchant or two without having to navigate a labyrithine series of corridors of the typical enclosed mall.

I would have a higher regard for lifestyle centers and, more over, hybrid centers, if there components were better integrated. The architecture and landscaping in the lifestyle component might be commendable, but in the adjacent power center, it may be unsettlingly spartan.

[DruidCity]

Give me a big ol' retail space that's completely enclosed with a parking deck

Well, it's not Birmingham, so I hope I'm not intruding on the thread, but what about

a lifestyle center/power center/strip mall (whatever term someone wants to call it) with a parking deck ?

Here's an example : http://www.midtownvillagetuscaloosa.com/3_property.html

[StevenRocks]

With department stores either consolidating or otherwise staggering into obscurity, I don't think we'll ever see the resurgence of the traditional enclosed mall format. Specialty retailers such as Williams-Sonoma and The Sharper Image appreciate the increased visiblity their storefronts have to potential customers. Customers, meanwhile, enjoy the convenience of pulling up to their favorite merchant or two without having to navigate a labyrithine series of corridors of the typical enclosed mall.

I would have a higher regard for lifestyle centers and, more over, hybrid centers, if there components were better integrated. The architecture and landscaping in the lifestyle component might be commendable, but in the adjacent power center, it may be unsettlingly spartan.

I don't think the five department store-anchor malls are going to come back, but there will be a shakeup in the market that will send developers back to the enclosed format eventually. Throughout the history of shopping, mall design has shifted from enclosed to open-air and back several times.

Williams-Sonoma, Sharper Image and the other trypical lifestyle tenants are smart to go where their customers are going, but it's smarter still to leverage their portfolio on a wide variety of real estate rather than just the lifestyle centers. Growth and accessability are more important that adherence to a certain real estate situation, especially since that situation is already at the top of its arc from a development standpoint.