Shopping Centers Today

MAR 2015

Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)

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the university each year, citing the lack of a lively college town as the primary reason. The Mansfield Downtown Part- nership, a collaboration of university, business and community leaders, was formed to help remake the town into a mixed-use, New England–style commu- nity. The result is Storrs Center: a $220 million, 125,000-square-foot, mixed-use development built by Storrs Center Al- liance, an affiliate of LeylandAlliance. Anchored by a 32,000-square-foot Price Chopper supermarket, a CVS phar- macy and a UConn Health Medical Services office, the center will comprise about 160,000 square feet of commer- cial space, 615 rental apartments and 40 condominiums and town homes upon its completion this summer. The large number of students popu- lating the town influenced the tenant mix, says David S. Hart, senior manag- ing partner of Hart Realty Advisers. This Simsbury, Conn.–based real estate investment management firm acquired the Storrs Center's completed phases in September on behalf of Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds for $45.8 million. Storrs Center is currently host to about 60 retail and services busi- nesses plus the student bookshop. It was the untapped opportunity and growth potential of the Storrs Center that first attracted Hart Realty Advisers to the de- velopment. "The most attractive thing to us about this location was that it was dramatically underserved by retail," said William H. Holmes, the firm's senior managing partner and portfolio man- ager. "You've got this huge research uni- versity with 20,000 students … yet there was practically nothing there in terms of retail," said Hart. Additionally, the con- struction of 600 apartments at the center "provided ready-made customers in addi- tion to all the students." F a r t h e r s o u t h , i n N e w H a - ven, Conn. — in an urban setting t ha t s t a n d s i n c o n t r a s t t o r u r a l Mansfield — Yale University built The Shops at Yale at the request of the city of New Haven. "In the early 1990s, the city was in a bit of trouble," re- called Lauren Zucker, Yale's associate vice president of New Haven affairs. "Banks were foreclosing and taking back a lot of properties. The mayor reached out to the then-president of Yale and asked us to step in. That's how we got into the commercial real estate business. We didn't set out to be commercial landlords." The university understood the importance of having a safe, thriving downtown, however ("a strong New Haven equals a strong Yale," in Zucker's words) and acquired about 85 retail spaces and 500 residen- tial units to create the Shops at Yale shopping district. The project encom- passes about 50 stores and roughly 130 eateries. J.Crew and Urban Outfit- ters are among the national retailers, while the locals include outdoors-mer- chandise seller Denali and the family- owned Lou Lou accessories store. To help identify potential tenants, Yale reached out not just to the stu- dents but also to the community at large. "We love them [the students], they're great, but they're only [in New Haven] for eight months out of the year," Zucker said. Yale focused on a customer market within a 50-mile radius from campus, given that New Haven is located near an interchange of highways and positions itself as a regional hub for Connecticut. And Yale's deep pockets translated into the luxury of being picky in choice of ten- ants. "If we just allowed the highest- paying tenants to operate, we'd have a district full of fast-food shops and banks," said Zucker. "That doesn't match with our goal of enhancing the community. Yale looks instead for a mix of tenants with varying price points. It also seeks out tenants that do not have a presence inside every mall. 38 S C T / M a r c h 2 0 1 5 S f a m o u S b u r g e r S a r e a h i t w i t h S t u d e n t S a n d t h e c i t y ' S f u l l - t i m e r e S i d e n t S a t t h e S h o p S a t y a l e , i n n e w h a V e n , c o n n .

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