Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/122387
THE COMMON AREA Name change earns outlet center a tax break Lightening up An outlet center project in Mississippi has been given a new name so that its developer can qualify for tax breaks under state tourism programs. The developer, Spectrum Capital, decided to rename its Outlets at Bloomfield, in the city of Pearl, The Outlets of Mississippi after state officials added the term "cultural retail" to their definition of a tourism project. "Tourism is a major component of outlet shopping," Jason Voyles, Spectrum's president, told SCT sister publication Value Retail News. "We have now officially created a combined tourism shopping destination in the Outlets of Mississippi." The shopping center, scheduled to open Nov. 14, now qualifies for some $22 million in sales-tax incentive funds. Spectrum will set aside space in the 300,000-square-foot center for a tourism office with information about Mississippi history and attractions. The developer will plant magnolia trees in the parking lot, post signs featuring quotes by famous Mississippians and offer live music. The Outlets of Mississippi is being added to the Mississippi Blues Trail, a National Endowment for the Arts project showcasing the state's contributions to music. The developer anticipates drawing some 700,000 visitors per year and is attributing about 1,600 jobs to the project. Signed tenants include Chico's Outlet, Kay Jewelers, J.Crew, Nike, Under Armour and Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th. Irvine Co. Retail Properties replaced all the common-area lighting at its 35-year-old University Center, in Irvine, Calif., with LED lamps, making that one of the first shopping centers in the country to be lit completely with a state-of-the-art lighting-control system and energy-efficient technology. The shopping center is the first of what Irvine Co. anticipates will be a portfoliowide LED conversion of the common-area lighting at all its properties. The $750,000 retrofit included replacing nearly 800 lamps and bulbs with LED fixtures, some designed specifically for Irvine Co. The process took eight months, and the new lighting has already yielded about 51 percent in savings on lighting-related expenses, which, the firm says, gets passed on to tenants, in the form of lower common-area-maintenance charges. Camera shy It appears digital photography is killing the in-store photo studio. Apparently, consumers would rather snap their own shots at home than drive the family to the local department store to pose in front of a drop cloth or other scenic background. CPI Corp., which ran photography studios inside almost 2,000 American stores, including Sears, Babies 'R' Us and Walmart, announced plans to go out of business in April. Walmart says St. Louis–based CPI operates portrait studios in 20 percent of its stores. Sears says the firm had operated in Sears stores since 1959 and had studios in all 788 Sears stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. At press time none of the affected retailers had decided whether they plan to lease photo studios to other operators or convert them to other uses. JCPenney and Target, for example, outsource operation of their photo studios to Lifetouch Portrait Studios Inc. M ay 2 013 / SCT 29