Speakers Dissect Mixed Use

HOLLYWOOD, FL-Mixed-use centers may be a popular format for retail real estate projects, but that doesn’t mean those developments will work in every scenario, said speakers here yesterday at the International Council of Shopping Centers’ Conference on Open-Air Centers. Developers need to take into consideration costs, as well market and retailer demand and other factors before simply putting residential units on top of stores, they said.

“It’s got to be financially viable,” says Sandeep Mathrani, an executive vice president at Vornado Realty Trust. “It doesn’t work everywhere.” Not every locale, like Vornado’s recently opened 731 Lexington in Midtown Manhattan, with Bloomberg LP as its main office tenant and H&M as retail anchor, can support multiple uses, he says.

And as much as some retailers may say they like mixed-use projects, very few will enter them unless the developments meet those firms’ parking, visibility and access requirements. “Unless you have that hard-to-find location in a major urban area, don’t expect them to break their rules,” says Emerick Corsi, a Forest City Enterprises executive vice president.