Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/827208
32 S C T / J U N E 2 0 1 7 New developments with large retail components are fo- cused mostly on the markets of Atlanta; Dallas; Denver; Hous- ton; Long Island, N.Y.; Miami-Dade; New York City; northern New Jersey; and Philadelphia, according to JLL. "No doubt the urban market is seeing most of the cranes," said retail leasing and investment specialist Stephanie Skrbin, a principal with Avison Young. The trend that sees Millennials and boom- ers move to the city core for better access to their jobs, pub- lic transportation, and shopping and dining amenities, con- tinues to drive construction, she says. The suburbs, however, are also embracing urbanism and place-making in their mixed-use lifestyle centers, Skrbin says. One such project is Imperial Market, in Sugar Land, Texas, an 850,000-square- foot mixed-use lifestyle center under development along U.S. 90. This will comprise 258,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, 100,000 square feet of offices, a 274-unit luxury residential complex and a 182-room boutique hotel. The project is expected to open by late 2018. Increasing numbers of outparcels, also called pad sites, are getting developed on the ring roads of shopping dis- tricts, spurred in part by brisk investor and institutional in- terest. Such in-fill locations, which are typically developed as restaurants, service-businesses or small blocks of mul- titenant spaces, are getting snapped up by 1031 and pri- vate investors that own them on a triple-net basis. In the first quarter, the U.S. saw a 25 percent increase in such net-lease properties (3,788), versus 3,045 in the fourth quarter of 2016. Driving this were property sellers trying to take ad- struction in progress. The Rockville, Md.–based REIT is also in the market for land. In recent weeks the firm has purchased 17 acres on the western edge of Lincoln Park, in Chicago. "It's the first acquisition we've made in Chicago in over 20 years; it's right down the middle of the plate for the type of stuff we look for. It's very in-fill, it's very unattractive as it currently sits — on a big piece of land that's subdividable," said Donald Wood, the firm's president and CEO. Weingarten Realty Investors is moving dirt too. The firm is making progress at the $181 million Gateway Alexandria (Va.), a mixed-use center that will contain 282 multifamily units and 100,000 square feet of retail anchored by a 62,000-square-foot Harris Teeter grocery store. "The land was purchased in late 2016, development is under way, and we expect to be complete in 2020," said Drew Alexander, Weingarten's president and CEO. The company has also purchased land for another mixed- use property: Arlington's $135 million Columbia Pike Village Center, which will contain 365 multifamily units and a 72,000-square-foot retail project anchored by a 50,000-square-foot Harris Teeter. The company says it expects to buy the land and begin development this quarter, with an expected completion date in 2020. Alexander says Weingarten's current redevelopment program has 16 properties for an investment of $225 million. n Imperial Market, a mixed-use center, will replace a factory in Sugarland, Texas Gateway Alexandria is scheduled for completion in 2020