Panelists Dissect Lifestyle Centers

LAS VEGAS-Lifestyle centers are one of the hottest retail property types right now, but not everyone agrees on what they actually are. “It’s a diluted term that a lot of people use for all kinds of centers,” says Josh Poag, CFO of Memphis-based Poag & McEwen Lifestyle Centers, the firm given credit for actually coining the phrase in the early 1990s.

Poag and others spoke yesterday on a panel titled “Lifestyle Centers – Past, Present and Future,” during the International Council of Shopping Centers’ Spring Convention here. He and other developers discussed the trends that influence the projects, as well as what works and what doesn’t.

The traditional lifestyle center as defined by ICSC is between 150,000 sf and 500,000 sf. They are open-air, usually in upscale locations and have many of the same fashion and restaurant tenants, such as J. Crew, Gymboree, and P.F. Chang’s. But the definition and parameters are becoming more fluid as developers build more of these centers and shoppers get to know them, panelists say.