Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/853369
48 S C T / A U G U S T 2 0 1 7 S I T E S & C I T I E S grow so quickly," said Gros. "We were flooded with inquiries from all over the country almost immedi- ately. That's when our team began to dream bigger." The Garden Grove project is to be built on the two-acre lot formerly occu- pied by the Black Angus restaurant un- til 2005, and which the Garden Grove Agency for Community Development acquired in 2009. The development will feature a second-story eating area and a children's play section. Plans are to feature at least a dozen vendors curated on the basis of the values of sustainability, craft and community. "Part of SteelCraft's success is that it has become a destination for resi- dents and travelers alike," said How- ard CDM owner Martin Howard, with reference to the Long Beach project. "People travel from all over to partici- pate in what SteelCraft has to offer." SteelCraft's core values align with the city of Garden Grove's Re:Imagine initiative, which focuses on transforming the downtown and Civic Center area, promotes the use of public spaces and encourages biking and walking. "Garden Grove is the perfect second location," said Howard. "It's right in the city's center in an already densely populated area of Orange County. We can bring connectivity to the downtown civic area." n O range County, Calif., will be welcoming its first shopping center built entirely from repurposed shipping containers, now that the SteelCraft Garden Grove project has won unanimous approval from the Garden Grove City Council. The 30,000-square-foot shopping center will sit on a long-unused downtown site, and the development is set for completion within the next year and a half or so. This is the second such local cen- ter developed by the team of Long Beach, Calif.–based construction firm Howard CDM and SteelCraft, a company founded by Long Beach native Kim Gros. The first center, called SteelCraft Long Beach, is a 15,000-square-foot outdoor eat- ery built out of containers from the nearby Port of Long Beach, and that project opened in February. Among the tenants there are DeSano Pizza Bakery, Lovesome Chocolates, Pig Pen Delicacy, Smog City Brewing, Steelhead Coffee, Tajima Ramen, The Fresh Shave and Waffle Love. (Steel- Craft Long Beach was profiled in the March 2017 issue of SCT .) Similar container shopping cen- ters have sprung up in London, Dubai and Las Vegas. "In my heart, I thought SteelCraft would grow to something bigger, but in my head, I didn't think it would hurricanes in the past decade has helped increase reserves," said Birdie. Real estate investment in Florida may no longer be only about the next hot property, but rather about the next dry property. Parts of Florida coastal cities that are farthest from the beach or at the highest elevations are quickly rising in value and are targets for investors, par- ticularly in Miami, notes Jesse Keenan, a lecturer in architecture who teaches cli- mate-change adaptation at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, in a May article in Scientific American. U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson, both of Florida, are seeking renewal of the 11th-hour deal made in 2014 with NFIP that established flood-insurance premiums of 40 to 45 percent of their total cost, with the taxpayers subsidizing the balance. That deal expires Sept. 30. Roughly a dozen real estate trade associations, including ICSC, have asked Congress to reau- thorize and reform the NFIP. Already, Floridians pay four times more into the NFIP than they receive in claims, according to Rubio. Complicating the situation, however, is NFIP's $24.6 bil- lion debt, attributable in large part to hurricanes Katrina (2005) and Sandy (2012). This is a debt that NFIP has said it cannot repay. Any lapse in NFIP programs could disrupt real estate sales in flood-prone areas, where banks re- quire flood insurance before they will approve loans, officials warn. Congressional budget hawks have said the NFIP program should be more self-sustaining and mar- ket-based, and they have advocated changes that are likely to limit its ac- cessibility to commercial properties. If the September renewal deadline passes without renewal or a new law, exist- ing NFIP policies will remain in effect, but new ones will not be issued. What is more, flood maps are con- stantly being redrawn, given the rising seas and the resultant higher risks, Jones says. "So unless you're grandfa- thered in," he said, "you may be in for a surprise." n By Ben Johnson California city green-lights shipping-container retail center