Creativity and Flexibility Lead Retail's Change

Jeffrey A. Bayer, president and CEO of Bayer Properties.

LAS VEGAS—“To be successful developers, property managers and innovators we need to become part of the disruption and not only embrace changing ways of doing business, but be creative, flexible and lead the change in how it impacts retail space and our industry.” Those thoughts are according to Jeffrey A. Bayer , president and CEO of Bayer Properties. The ICSC RECon attendee tells GlobeSt.com that Bayer Properties is not only planning for today’s changes, but creating infrastructure and design that will continue to accommodate new technologies and changing preferences. He notes that in the firm’s new projects such as the Summit at Fritz Farm in Lexington, KY, and its existing retail developments, “are continually reimagining the attributes of designing public spaces that encompass how consumers want to experience retail.” Bayer points out that “No longer do consumers have to ‘go’ shopping, shopping is in their hand in a universal marketplace. So for retail to be relevant there has to be a sense of place and purpose.” Developers and retailers, he adds, need to tap into what makes a person want to leave their home. “For us this means creating experience through architecture, design and experiences.” From yoga to working with local colleges to create an art display or a free concert, it’s important to create events and experiences with a hyper-local draw,” explained Bayer. “These events have to be consistent with the overall feel and tone of the project and the local market,” he said. “This is not a cookie-cutter approach, what works in one center might not work in another.” What needs to happen looking forward, Bayer said, is to “consistently evolve the retail experience so that consumers will return for what’s new and interesting. As developers we do our job well if the shopper looks up from his smart phone, away from the virtual world, and sees the ‘real’ world as something worth looking at, touching, buying or eating.”