LOS ANGELES-Jones Lang LaSalle has been selected by Time Warner Cable to handle project management for the development of the company’s six new retail stores in Southern California located in Eagle Rock, Glendora, Hollywood, San Bernardino, Torrance and Westminster. The new stores are expected to open over the next six months.
Jack Kozakar and Mitch Desser of JLL’s Southern California project and development services group will lead a team to provide project management which will include lease negotiation, strategic planning, site selection, budgets and scheduling. Additionally, JLL will provide program management including assisting Time Warner Cable to roll out a national program of the new store format in 26 stores including the selection of contractors, services and products.
Kozakar tells GlobeSt.com that “of all the reactive trends going on in the market now: higher fuel costs that translate into higher costs for steel, copper, asphalt, etc.—gradual increases in construction costs—smaller boxes wanted from many retailers—a growing brick and mortar presence for on-line retailers; one of the most interesting new trends is the push for customer interfaces that are more open, informative and fun.”
He explains that what he sees from his clients is “a desire to scrap designs and construction from a previous age where customers and retail agents were separated by a counter and glass partition and immerse everyone in the same coordinated experience. The goal is to make the technology that is being sold, the various strategies for interacting with technology, upselling opportunities, on the spot learning, and the actual sale, part of the same overall customer experience.”
That change, he says, is made possible in part by fewer cash transactions.
But an even greater reason why the changes are rippling through the retail outlets, Kozakar adds, is that “there is a shift in generational expectations about what a retail experience is supposed to be.”
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