A Guide to Repurposing Retail Centers

We hear a lot about the demise of shopping malls – once the staple of the American suburban psyche – but by thinking creatively and applying the fundamentals of commercial real estate development, malls can be redeveloped to serve, once again, as community hubs.

In Austin, Texas, the former Highland Mall, which once boasted 1.2 million square feet, is now home to the largest campus of the Austin Community College.

In Vancouver, British Columbia, the 540,000-square-foot former Brentwood Town Centre is now The Amazing Brentwood, a master-planned redevelopment with the potential for 4.5 million square feet of residential properties, 1.1 million square feet of retail and 1 million square feet of office.

And in Nashville, Tennessee, the 100 Oaks Mall – once Tennessee’s largest mall – is now home to the Vanderbilt Medical Center, which combined 20 outlying clinics into one location that more efficiently serves its patients.

Malls may seem like dinosaurs in today’s world of online shopping and open-air retail environments, but a retail property’s proximity to highways and residential areas can make it a good candidate for redevelopment or adaptive reuse. Working closely with local officials and members of the community is critical to a project’s success.

Every underperforming or shuttered mall has its own set of opportunities and obstacles. However, there are common strategies that developers and lenders can follow when evaluating the sites’ potential. These are articulated in NAIOP Research Foundation’s new report: Repurposing Retail Centers: Profiles in Adaptation, Repositioning and Redevelopment.

And the results are tangible. A successful mall redevelopment project often provides a community with significant economic and social benefits.

The NAIOP Research Foundation report details five unique case studies from across North America, sharing vital takeaways that are specific to each case study and yet can be almost universally applied:

Redevelopment can be a cause of concern within a neighborhood; however, by communicating and working with community leaders and activists, it usually will be outweighed by the dissatisfaction with a decaying mall.

The size and scope of certain types of developments will require significant and complicated financing, possibly including working with multiple lenders for different portions of the project.

Integrating new uses and managing construction while retail tenants remain open is challenging. Effective construction management is critical. With significant overlap in a project’s timing, financing and delivery dates, construction and operations may have to occur simultaneously across the property. But retailers can continue to operate successfully in the middle of a large active construction zone when managed correctly.

Retailers can be hesitant about sharing parking spaces with other types of tenants such as medical offices. Yet research demonstrates that medical office peak hours tend to be at times when retail foot traffic was lowest, and that peak retail foot traffic occurs when medical offices were closed.

Overall, of course, those considering a mall redevelopment will have to think beyond traditional retail uses.

In the cases presented in the NAIOP report, the respective regions experienced improvements in land use that impacted the quality of life for their residents through job creation, expanded educational opportunities, additional open space and access to health care.

The end result may be vastly different from the malls we once knew, but developers and lenders should have confidence that completely or even partially redeveloped malls can yet be a symbol of vitality for the communities they serve.

Thomas J. Bisacquino is president and CEO of NAIOP.