In February, CNU member Lee Sober of CB Richard Ellis, Inc. in Miami began compiling revitalization success stories for the CNU report. Thirteen new projects on what the CNU study calls "greyfield " retail sites are included in the CNU study. The report uses the term "greyfield" to describe retail properties that require significant public and private sector intervention to stem decline.
"More familiar are brownfields (contaminated urban development sites) and greenfields (underdeveloped rural land). By contrast, greyfields are developed sites that are economically and physically ripe for major redevelopment," according to the report.
Among the project success stories detailed in the CNU study is the Santana Row development by Federal Realty Investment Trust in San Jose. According to the study, Santana Row meets all the criteria for inclusion as a success story: the project is built, under construction, approved or has construction financing; the project is on the site of a greyfield shopping center with at least 350,000 sf of improvements and the project incorporates a number of the design elements listed in the report as principals for creating new urbanist neighborhoods.
CNU concludes from the study that many greyfields are best redeveloped as transit-oriented, mixed use projects. Some are no longer suitable for regional retail, but many as well suited to a mix that may include housing, retail, office, services and public space.
Another greyfield revitalization project deemed a success by the study is The Crossings in Mountain View, a completed project on an 18-acre site that includes 5,000 sf of retail, 630 homes, some on-street parking and parks including a community bandstand.
The Crossings was planned and designed by Calthorpe Associates of Berkeley and developed by The Plymouth Group on a 1950s auto-oriented strip mall adjacent to a new CalTrain commuter station.
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