Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/122387
Westfield is pushing forWard With a $1.5 billion redevelopment and expansion of its Westfield london complex. a 500,000-square-foot mall extension, restaurant space, an entertainment complex and as many as 1,700 residences. Lend Lease says it will extend its Bluewater center, near Dartford, by 330,000 square feet. This 14-year-old shopping center contains 330 stores and attracts 28 million visitors per year. Land Securities is joining the U.K. redevelopment game too, with a planned expansion of the 680,000-square-foot White Rose mall, in Leeds. DDR Corp. is in the midst of a fiveyear, $750 million redevelopment program, an investment it says could generate double-digit returns. 152 SCT / M a y 2 0 1 3 In the U.S. DDR Corp. is in the midst of a five-year, $750 million redevelopment program, an investment it says could generate double-digit returns — minus the uncertainties and expense of ground-up development. DDR is expanding many of its anchors' spaces and even moving entire food courts. The downsizing of retail footprints has created mark-to-market opportunities for DDR to retake space in nearly fully leased centers, says Joseph M. Tichar, DDR's senior vice president of corporate operations and chief of staff. "Getting back 10,000 to 12,000 square feet enables us to bring in some of the hot retailers, which generates traffic and maximizes the value of our real estate," he said. The hard-hit mom-and-pop tenant base is coming back, but this is a slow process, Tichar says. "In the meantime, we've been able to take some of that space and consolidate it for high-credit-worthy retailers who will pay nice rents." DDR has redeveloped four properties in Puerto Rico, where tenant success has prompted the firm to nearly double its redevelopment budget from $50 million to $90 million. At one property, the 690,000-square-foot Plaza del Sol mall, DDR added a food court and 25,000 square feet of in-line space. The firm has plans for 137,000 square feet of additional square footage there in a second phase that will expand one anchor and make room for new junior anchors. Birmingham, Mich.–based Gibbs Planning Group, a retail design and urban-planning specialist, is receiving calls about retrofits and remodels. The firm was getting only about two jobs per month at the depth of the downturn but now gets about two per day, with 60 percent of that coming from private firms and the rest from public entities. "I've never seen anything like it," said company founder Robert J. Gibbs, author of Principles of Urban Retail Planning and Development. Gibbs applauds one aspect of the redevelopment push in particular: "In-filling urban and suburban locations," he said, "is more sustainable than building on new greenfield sites." Canada, long considered under-