Urban Retail Begins and Ends with Design

LAS VEGAS, CA-“The first thing we look for in urban development is income density and population.” So says Scott Auster, managing director of Grid Properties Inc. in New York. “If you have density, there is almost always the demand.”

Auster joined others at ICSC’s RECon 2013 in a panel titled “Mixed-Use and the New Urban Footprint,” which was moderated by Rick Fernandez, managing director of Calkain Cos. Auster pointed out that Harlem USA, the firm’s first urban retail project, which is anchored by a Magic Johnson movie theater, has been called the “prototype for urban retail development.” One of the key reasons for that, he said, is because when it was started more than 13 years ago, the firm had “a very clear idea of what we wanted to do.”