"Outside the box" is way to go as malls fight high vacancies
A string of USA national bankruptcies has mall landlords shifting their thinking away from big box chains.
The recently announced New Era Park at Eastern Hills Mall is one local example of an increasing number of nontraditional tenants finding their way into former retail spaces in both regional malls and neighborhood strip centers.
The $1 million athletic training facility will fill 52,000 square feet at the mall come October, bringing it to 100 percent occupancy after years of limping by with high vacancy rates. The mall also houses an Erie County Auto Bureau branch, a military museum and learning center called Echoes Through Time and Bridges Wellness Center, which teaches holistic health and spirit classes.
Landlords are becoming increasingly flexible on nontraditional tenants and have lightened up on shorter lease terms, rent concessions and temporary uses. I have even seen churches moving into malls in underused theaters and open areas.
McKinley Mall has gotten creative, too, housing a Red Dragon Martial Arts dojo as well as the Ten Lives Club, a non-profit cat adoption and rescue organization. Going forward, said Property Manager Jeff Ohle, the mall is focusing on adding entertainment or recreational uses in addition to office and medical space.
Since the Fort Lauderdale Children's Theatre moved into Florida's prime regional Galleria Mall in April, several hundred kids and their parents come each week to the mall for rehearsals and classes. They have brought traffic and life to the increasingly vacant east end of the mall that Lord & Taylor once called home.
Stiller has already signed deals with day care centers, medical clinics, shared office space and beauty suites. And he's looking for more.
"Shopping centers are very conveniently located," Stiller said. "In a weak business environment, you have to open up the aperture and think a little more creatively. The more quickly you turn into a proactive mode and recognize this is going to be with us for awhile, the better off you're going to be."
One of Stiller's new nontraditional tenants is J.J. Martin, who is opening the Beauty Mall in Kendall, Fla. The space will house about 40 different beauty professionals under one roof.
At the end of the day, it's all about filling spaces. Read the complete original article here http://www.buffalonews.com/145/story/777021.html
In Manila, The research firm said Metro Manila malls are filled with non-traditional retail tenants such as spas, clinics, leisure and entertainment shops. http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2009/sept/01/yehey/business/20090901bus1.html
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