Shopping Centers Today

MAR 2013

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

Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/109754

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PHOTO: GEORGE J. TOLAND III, 6TH RIB PHOT OGR A PH Y GENERAL GROWTH PROPERTIES' ALAN J. BAROCAS world of retail. SCT spoke with eight leasing experts who shared insights about what it takes to be successful, not just amid the ebb and flow of temporary trends, but also over the long haul of a productive career. JESSICA BRUNER Urban-planner types often fret about the problem of a cookie-cutter tenant mix — retail lineups that tend to be repeated from one property to the next, with nary a nod to local distinctions. But when shoppers stroll through Mosaic — Edens' new, mixed-use neighborhood in Fairfax County, Va. — they find an eyebrow-raising mix that is strong on quirky fashion and food but which also offers national draws like Target and Anthropologie. The $350 million first phase, which opened last fall, features such urbane concepts as MOM's Organic Market, Angelika Film Center & Café and Sweetgreen. On the retail and fashion front, Mosaic's storefronts bear names THE IRVINE CO.'S FREDERICK COLLINGS like Addison, Dawn Price Baby and South Moon Under. This roster is carefully crafted and anything but cookiecutter. And much of the credit goes to Jessica Bruner, Edens' vice president of leasing for the mid-Atlantic region, and to her partner on the project, leasing representative Vanessa Mendoza. "I've worked on Mosaic since we started on it back in 2004 or 2005, and I'm still working on it, because we have another 150,000 square feet of retail coming online over the next 18 to 24 months," Bruner said. "From the beginning, the leadership team at Edens had a different vision of what we wanted to do with Mosaic. It involved a lot of grassroots leasing. We wanted to elevate the shops and restaurants, with a focus on place-making and community engagement." Along the way, Bruner learned valuable lessons about what it takes to set a project apart in a dense market brimming with sophisticated shoppers. For starters, it helps to see the lease-up as in- separable from other aspects of the project, she says, up to and including the way a specific tenant might look and feel within the overall design. "Early on, one of the big things I learned was how important it is for the merchandising and the design to tie together," said Bruner. "The aesthetic of the place you are creating walks hand in hand with the merchandising — right down to how big the trees are when you plant them. Some of those seemingly small nuances can make a big difference once the project is developed." Leasing agents tend to be "deal junkies," Bruner says, so it may take patience and discipline to avoid rushing into deals with tenants that might not, in the end, be the best fit. "The key is to partner with people who share that vision," Bruner said. "This can be time-consuming. It involves a lot of people working a lot of hours, because there are a lot more nuances to some of these deals." Bruner heads leasing efforts for 44 mid-Atlantic properties valued at some M ARC H 20 13 / SCT 33

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