Tim Blum

MILWAUKEE – The Mayfair Collection is an ever-expanding mixed-use development that Tim Blum, executive vice president and managing director at HSA Commercial, believes is a perfect example of where the property type is headed. GlobeSt.com caught up with Blum to get his take on the project, the mixed-use market and what's to come for this property type in Wisconsin and beyond.

GlobeSt.com: Can you give a cliff-notes version of the Mayfair Collection project?

Tim Blum: The Mayfair Collection, the 69-acre mixed-use community outside Milwaukee in Wauwatosa, Wis., anchored by Whole Foods and Nordstrom Rack, transformed a blighted industrial area into a vibrant mixed-use district. Featuring off-price concepts like Nordstrom Rack, Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH and T.J. Maxx, one of the state's first Whole Foods stores and destination-caliber local eateries, The Mayfair Collection most recently welcomed a hotel, luxury apartments and unveiled plans for a 30,000-square-foot coworking hub that will open this spring.

GlobeSt.com: How have you seen mixed-use spaces evolve over the years?

Tim Blum: A vibrant retail and restaurant scene is a fundamental building block for any mixed-use development as it creates the “there, there” that will attract residents, diners and shoppers to the project. For example, residential developers ignored The Mayfair Collection for years and did not believe that the site of a former industrial complex was well-suited for new housing. Once we announced Whole Foods and began attracting an eclectic lineup of local restaurants, competition became fierce among those same residential developers that saw value in these walk-to amenities.

Given the lack of demand for new retail space with the current dislocations in the marketplace, mixed-use developers have to become more creative to find alternative anchors and merchandising concepts to spur interest in their projects. Developers are increasingly looking to theaters, gaming halls, health clubs, coworking facilities, concert venues, brewpubs and others to take the place of conventional retail anchors and drive traffic through a complementary mix of uses – many of which cannot be replicated online. With that strategy in mind, Serendipity Labs will open a coworking facility offering flexible membership-based office and conference solutions for local businesses in an anchor position in the third phase of The Mayfair Collection. While a junior department store would have likely occupied this space in the past, the coworking lab offers a contemporary alternative that provides more consistent daytime traffic and an attractive amenity to residents of the nearby luxury apartments.

GlobeSt.com: Today, mixed-use developments are trying to diversify more in order to remain viable. What is driving that trend?

Tim Blum: The way people engage with retail is continuing to change with the growth of e-commerce, and that means that traditional retailing environments must change as well. Owners of shopping centers and lifestyle properties that would have historically been populated by national fashion brands are increasingly finding that customers are looking for different experiences when visiting their properties including a curated mix of local restaurants, entertainment and gaming venues, boutique fitness concepts, gathering and performance spaces and retail concepts that emphasize a more compelling in-store experience. This is achieved through VIP events, knowledgeable customer service, product sampling, and better overall customer engagement.

GlobeSt.com: How is The Mayfair Collection a good example of this?

Tim Blum: When we designed the third phase of The Mayfair Collection, our expectation during the pre-development process was that the space would be occupied by apparel brands. We ultimately shifted strategy and decided to open a Serendipity Labs facility offering coworking, conference and event services for local entrepreneurs seeking an inspired office location just steps away from a dynamic selection of retail and restaurant offerings. When we made the announcement, we found our residents were much more enthusiastic about the prospect of having a flexible office and event solution as part of The Mayfair Collection as opposed to a clothing store they may have visited once a year; moreover, we believe that this will be a more complementary and consistent traffic driver for the existing retail and restaurants in the project.

GlobeSt.com: How has the Mayfair Collection differentiated itself from other mixed-use spaces in the Milwaukee market?

Tim Blum: There are a number of comparable mixed-use projects that have been built within a similar timeframe as The Mayfair Collection around Milwaukee. Some of these projects have sizeable retail components, a few emphasize their restaurant and entertainment offerings and others have a heavier emphasis on the residential. What distinguishes The Mayfair Collection is the sheer size and critical mass of each community building block: over 500,000 square feet of retail space anchored by Whole Foods Market; eight popular local restaurants; and 269 luxury apartment units with plans to build up to 1,000 residences on-site over the next five years. All of these uses are combined in a dense, walkable community unlike any other project, and that community is still continuing to grow. The Mayfair Collection through its size, capacity and emphasis on density has the ability to evolve into a small, integrated city within the 69-acres that the project occupies.

GlobeSt.com: The residential components of Mayfair Collection is something you are looking to expand upon and then mimic in other properties – why do you think this has grown in popularity in recent years? Do you think this is a trend that will continue?

Tim Blum: On-site residential helps add vibrancy and authenticity to lifestyle-oriented projects. Prior to the opening of Synergy at The Mayfair Collection—the 269-unit luxury apartment development—our project was largely dormant after 10pm when the stores and restaurants would close. But with permanent residents now living on-site, The Mayfair Collection has been transformed into a 24-7 community that has seemingly taken on a life of its own. In addition to the energy and vibrancy that the residential components create for the overall project, these residents and their guests often become frequent visitors to our stores and restaurants.

The way that people like to work, shop and live has fundamentally changed; and people are increasingly eschewing suburban sprawl in favor of more dense, walkable communities both inside and outside of the city. That's why we are looking at more ways to integrate residential into our existing portfolio of retail assets—including the construction of up to 1,000 residences at The Mayfair Collection—and why residential will be an essential component of any future acquisition or development for us.