Across the country, a spokesperson for the International Council of Shopping Centers says, there are some 26 centers projected to open for 2006. Specifically in the DC-area, two slated to open this year and next: the Potomac Town Center and the Streets Of Albermarle in Charlottesville, VA.
A spokesman for Montgomery County's Department of Economic Development says that the county has been at the forefront of this movement. "The Kentlands development (in Gaithersburg, MD) was among the first to offer a town center, mixed use type-development in the region." It went on to win numerous awards and spawn additional growth, he says.
There are others in the pipeline in the county, including a project in Gaithersburg that won approval from the County Council last week to annex a 180-acre Crown Farm property parcel as part of the development. The project's developers include KB Home, Centex Homes, Lebling Development and investor Aris Mardirossian. The project calls for 2,250 residential units and 320,000 sf of retail space. Another example is Madison Marquette, which just announced plans to expand the Festival, a 500,000-sf retail center in Waldorf, MD, into a larger lifestyle development project it is planning to build at that location.
Lifestyle centers are of great interest to DC developers, agrees Ed Asher, president of Chevy Chase Land, unless the space in question is better suited to another project. That does not happen often, Asher says, but it has happened to him at least once.
Several years ago he planned to turn a track of land in Chevy Chase into a lifestyle center. Then he realized the neighborhood and other demographics would better support a luxury retail center. "We decided to aim a little higher and go after the top tier luxury retailers," especially as there were few in the area at that time.
Such retailers typically like to invest in neighborhoods that have a high concentration of three elements: luxury residential housing, offices and tourists, Asher explains. The Chevy Chase area didn't attract many tourists until recently when several high-end hotels opened. Once that piece was in place, Asher says, the retailers were ready to move in. Christian Dior was the first store to open in 2001 in the Collection at Chevy Chase and several others quickly followed.
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Erika Morphy
Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.
