Malls Still Retail Contenders

CHICAGO-The demise of the shopping mall—the parking-intensive, department-store anchored, teen magnet that came of age decades ago—isn’t at hand. Not even close, say a panel of retail experts assembled by the International Council of Shopping Centers for a discussion of the future of the American mall on Wednesday.

“Malls aren’t a thing of the past,” said Frances Spencer, assistant commissioner for planning and development of the City of Chicago, who heads the Retail Chicago program, which encourages retail development and leasing in the city’s neighborhoods. “People are still going to malls. But malls that don’t update themselves, and keep up with what the market wants, will die.”

Along with Spencer, the panel included M. Jeff Hardwick, editor at Island Press of architecture, land use and urban planning books, and Elizabeth I. Holland, president and CEO of Abbell Credit Corp., which owns and manages about 2 million sf of retail properties. The discussion, which was moderated by Celeste M. Hammond, professor and director for the Center for Real Estate Law at the John Marshall School of Law, was also held at that school, which occupies a building in the South Loop of Chicago.