Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/863214
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 / S C T 29 the preeminent malls in Wisconsin), and Wauwatosa boasts the state's largest medical and research campus, with a daytime population exceeding 30,000. By 2007 the developers had acquired some 60 acres at the site, including roughly 1 million square feet of 1950s-vintage warehouses. "At that point," said Blum, "we knew we had a very attractive site — right on an interstate, in a high-barrier-of- entry 'A' market with a huge amount of pent-up demand, in a state that was pro-business and prime for redevelopment." Though the 2008 recession delayed those plans, Milwaukee was ready for such a project, because it is largely under-retailed, relative to many other metro areas, particularly nearby Chicago. The first phase of the redevelopment was Mayfair Collection, and Blum's leasing strategy relied on finding retail tenants to complement Mayfair Mall, whose five- to-10-mile trade area encompassed all of metro Milwaukee. A seasoned retail broker before moving into the development side, Blum understood the mind-set of potential tenants. "A lot of merchants would want to come here and plant one store in the Mayfair corridor, and that would be it — a one-and-done strategy, not unlike what you see in Charlotte [North Carolina] or Nashville [Tennessee] or other smaller markets," said Blum. "To all those merchants who wanted to be in Milwaukee, we provided the venue for that." HSA's construction strategy was to create a unique center while easing construction costs, which would translate to lower rents. "We did not want to develop one of your ubiquitous, uninteresting power centers or lifestyle centers," said Blum. best-in-class fashion merchants that typically locate on mall perimeters, says Blum. Today Mayfair Collection is 100 percent leased to Dick's Sporting Goods, DSW, Men's Wearhouse, Nordstrom Rack, Old Navy, Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th, T.J.Maxx and Ulta. The second phase of the redevelopment included a 45,000-square-foot Whole Foods that opened in May 2016. This is the grocery chain's second store in metro Milwaukee. "We created this shopping environment that is very synergistic, so people aren't coming in shopping one place and then leaving," said Blum. "It's an environment that attracts people from a long distance and keeps them there for a long period of time." The results speak for themselves. The first phase "was off the hook — as successful a grand opening as I have ever been a part of," said Blum. "And that phase has maintained its success. It hasn't seen the typical J curve, where you get this deep trough after the honeymoon period; it is flat- out the most successful project that I have ever been associated with. I've always operated from the premise: How do I value-engineer my tenants' rents while still maximizing their sales? I have been associated with a lot of projects here at HSA, but nothing from a sales perspective that even comes close to this." n "We decided not to scrape the site, but to do an adaptive reuse of some of the warehouse buildings that are on the site, since we have a history of repositioning obsolete real estate assets and giving them a new life." Indeed, the HSA team saw immediately that the existing industrial infrastructure — the buildings' slabs, column spacings and ceiling heights — could be successfully adapted for retail use. This proved to be a prudent decision. "It allowed us to value-engineer rents at a much lower level than if we spent money on new construction," said Blum. "A lot of these merchants were able to afford the rents, as opposed to new-construction rents, so that was a unique strategy." The goal was to attract the sorts of TIMELINE 2004–2007 Sixty-plus acres of industrial land is assembled along Highway 45 April 2014 The first phase of The Mayfair Collection opens May 2016 Whole Foods inaugurates the second phase October 2016 Restaurant Row, host to several local restaurants, marks the opening of the third phase April 2017 Ground is broken on the first residential community