“The major purpose of the shopping center is to create a comfortable environment that performs like a machine,” to maximize retail sales, Taubman says. “I am not a believer in the marriage of entertainment and retail. … We would destroy the Mall at Short Hills if we added entertainment.”

But, notes Rashid Doleh, CEO of Emaar Malls, Dubai, “Not everywhere is the United States.” Emaar plans to open 150 malls over the next 10 years in the Middle East and China. But the extra components must be carefully tailored to the market, Doleh says.

“It's a prerequisite to have the right stores,” Doleh says. “Above and beyond that, the addition of entertainment is so important.”

Shoppers in less developed areas often have smaller homes, without access to elaborate home-theater systems. The mall fills a need there. Entertainment also helps to differentiate centers.

“Shopping centers are becoming quite sterile, taking [consumers'] money without giving anything back,” says Ian Watt, former executive director of Old Mutual Investment Group Property Investments, Cape Town. “Spice has to go into the mix.”

Even if the customer does not shop at the same time as visiting the entertainment, Watt argues, the vitality created would increase sales.

“People went to the old squares to be educated, to meet with people, to shop and be entertained,” he says. “That's partly why the old cities of Europe and Asia are still visited.”

In India, for example the mall is entertainment. And there, too, customers look for brands.

“The real question is that, as the customer evolves in the United States and abroad, does the suburban customer in India, as she has home entertainment, still want entertainment in malls?” Watt asks.

Despite the substantive disagreements, however, all three were in accord on the effect of entertainment on financing. They agree that entertainment that increases sales per sf will lower a cap rate, and entertainment that hurts sales per sf will raise it.