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Page 24 — Retail Properties Quarterly — November 2016
the city’s core include larger, but
more affordable homes, backyards,
quieter streets, less congestion and
better schools. But now there are
aspects of urban living these new
residents are looking to bring with
them.
We are seeing competition among
suburban cities to offer a downtown
area that provides a walkable gath-
ering place for residence to con-
gregate. A place with restaurants,
bars, breweries, coffee shops, yoga
studios and hair salons that resi-
dents can call their own. What is
old will be new again – this notion
of a town square is as old as towns
themselves, but there is a new
importance placed on it. Potential
residents are making it an important
part of their decision on where to
live and cities are responding by try-
ing to create a slice of urban life in
suburbia.
Over the last decade, outdated
large enclosed shopping malls have
become opportunities for cities to
create an urban feel where no real
town center previously existed.
Englewood took the opportunity to
transform the Cinderella City Mall
into what is now the Englewood City
Center. Lakewood’s once-thriving
Villa Italia mall is now Lakewood’s
Belmar development, which serves
as the city’s gathering place.
Places like Olde Town Arvada,
Downtown Littleton, Englewood,
Louisville and Longmont have the
advantage of having a historic
downtowns that have charming
older buildings, wide sidewalks and
a dense concentrations of historic
buildings that already possess the
physical characteristics of an urban
setting.
Other cities without the advantage
of a historic downtown have devel-
oped new large retail and mixed-use
developments to create a downtown
feel where it did not exist before.
Examples include Orchard Town
Center in Westminster, Southlands
in southeast Aurora and Streets of
SouthGlenn in Centennial.
While a few suburban cities have
both a historic downtown they are
redeveloping as well as a larger scale,
open-air mall to create gathering
spots for their community. Long-
mont is a great example. The city
is working to revitalize its historic
downtown and redevelop its Village
at the Peaks mall with urban charac-
teristics.
The future of retail is in the ability
to create experiences and gathering
places. There are ample opportuni-
ties for retailers and restaurants to
expand their concepts into the sub-
urbs. Cities are competing to attract
the next generation of residents. The
future of a suburb’s success, to some
degree, will depend on how each city
adapts to embrace urban characteris-
tics by creating gathering places for
the community in order to attract
this new generation of residents.s
strikes the right balance between
accessibility and exclusivity with the
introduction of retailers such as Nor-
dstrom, Crate and Barrel, Restoration
Hardware, PF Chang’s and Dillard’s to
the area.
Today, 10 percent of its tenants
are exclusive to the mall, including
Microsoft, Merrell and Tesla, and the
mall has plans to add nearly 48,000
sf of new and newly remodeled
retail spaces by the end of 2016. The
retail resort attracts and retains top
retailers by creating experiences that
motivate people to leave the house.
The mall is divided into four dis-
tinct interior zones that highlight
lifestyle, fashion and design, enter-
tainment and family. Each area offers
something different from a retail and
architectural experience. Adding to
the local feel, the mall features more
than $1 million in commissioned art
by Colorado artists and photogra-
phers.
• Inspire growth. Park Meadows has
always benefitted from its location at
the intersection of two major high-
ways, Interstate 25 and C-470. How-
ever, when it first opened in Lone
Tree there was limited development
in the area.
Ten years later, the Regional Trans-
portation District completed the
southeast corridor light-rail expan-
sion that connected the mall to the
rest of metro Denver. As a result,
Park Meadows and the surrounding
area became an even more impor-
tant hub of commercial and commu-
nity activity, strengthening its place
in the market. Since Park Meadows
opened its doors, Douglas County
has become the nation’s fastest-
growing county.
After the light-rail completion, the
area has seen significant growth in
commercial and residential develop-
ments including multifamily hous-
ing, hotels, restaurants and grocery
stores. The area is now home to
major corporate campuses for com-
panies such as Charles Schwab and
Arrow Electronics.
• Embrace online retailers. With
more consumers moving to online
shopping, the mall has adapted and
evolved instead of fighting the online
trend. The mall embraced several
retailers that were previously online
only, allowing shoppers to experi-
ence these retailers in a new, more
personal way.
Stores such as Soft Surroundings,
Athleta, Sundance and Nespresso,
for example, were predominately
catalog or online. They now have
thriving locations within the mall. By
the end of 2016, Park Meadows will
house online retail giant Amazon’s
first kiosk in Colorado.
• Stay nimble. Park Meadows con-
tinues to stay relevant by changing
the way it offers the retail experi-
ence. Thinking beyond the depart-
ment store, Park Meadows debuted
the Vistas in 2008 to cater to chang-
ing tastes.
Designed as a mountain village,
the 154,000-sf outdoor expansion
gave people more reasons to flock to
Park Meadows with high-end dining
options and boutique shopping. The
Vistas offers a unique shopping and
dining experiences because it is not
a collection of stores placed within
the landscape, but rather a land-
scape in which the stores are placed.
As the retail industry continues
to evolve, Park Meadows and other
malls will inevitably face challenges.
However, if the first 20 years are any
indication, the retail resort is well
positioned for success.s
Livaditis
Kelly