LAS VEGAS—We all love our Super Bowl ads, right? The opening night of ad campaigns that will run a year with titillating images, side-splitting humor or messages of deeply felt (if profit-based) sentiment. Well, enjoy them while they last. According to Edward Del Beccaro, managing director for Transwestern in California's East Bay/Silicon Valley market, they may not be around for many more years as retail marketing takes on a more highly nuanced and personalized approach. He explains his theory of the demise of the ads in the video above.

But there was much more to our exclusive RECon interview with Del Beccaro than appears in the video, including how retail and distribution are merging, especially in the face of the urban upsurge and how mixed-use can actually save the mall concept. The managing director was outspoken on all of the topics and his insights are eye-opening.

In terms of the merger of two formerly distinct real estate product groups, he notes that, “People don't realize how distribution is now a key part of retail. With the urbanization trend, you just can't bring a big truck into Union Street in San Francisco or Broadway in Manhattan.”

He says the need, as always, is to drive costs down. That was one of the motivators behind Walmart using trucks as a sort of rolling warehouse. “Just like at the ports, trucks have to go in and out with something in them,” he says. “Google and Amazon are now offering four-hour delivery. You need key inventory in close proximity to a given downtown.”

Couple this with the trend among importers to access multiple US ports rather than rely on one and risk labor problems as those that recently hit L.A.--during the Christmas rush. “Using multiple ports is one way they can both lower cost and deliver just-in-time product,” says Del Beccaro. “So if you're in retail, you're in logistics.”

That above-mentioned urbanization also impacts retail, in obvious ways, but not so obvious is the fact that many city officials, says Del Beccaro, have to better understand the concept of mixed-use if they want to gain retail tax for their municipalities. “Obviously, as jobs return to the CBDs, housing follows and that impacts retail,” he explains, “and the kind of retail tech workers are looking for is amenity-based and near where they live.” Which means mixed-use.

But Del Beccaro says the powers that be in many cities don't quite get the fine line between success and failure. “They think there should be a lot of retailers on the ground floor, and that's a mistake. We use a ratio of no more than 10,000 feet of retail for every 500 units. And that's why, despite the presence of mass transit, you'll see vacant first floors in a mixed-use concept for years.” This official blindness is compounded by zoning laws that often underplay the need for off-loading of goods and trash haul-away.

That density issue is often cited as a reason for the often-reported struggles of the American mall and its attempts to redefine itself. But as Del Beccaro points out, mixed-use, the hot concept in CBDs, may also be the savior of the suburban mall.

“On the surface it would appear the mall is a dinosaur,” he says, “and part of the problem is population density.” In San Francisco's Inner Bay, Del Beccaro reports that malls are flourishing, “but go 60 miles out in virtually any city,” and it's a different story, where maybe the most popular concepts are discounters.

More discounters will be part of the answer, he believes, as will medical concepts as healthcare increasingly is folded into the retail mix (“Medical is adopting a retail strategy,” he says.) But, he adds, the real innovation will come outside the mall proper.

“The next trend is asphalt,” he says. “Imagine all that asphalt around a mall, where you can put apartments and mixed-use developments.” It's an especially intriguing solution in California where zoning so often prohibits building on “virgin land.” Such projects would provide for mall retailers a built-in audience, and he reports, he's starting to see developers “moving into the concept.”

Wrapping up, an understated Del Beccaro looks ahead and notes how many changes will take place in the evolution of retail real estate in the next decade. “It's a fascinating time,” he concludes. Indeed.