Form and Function

The geometry of community centers hasn’t changed much—the standard U- and L-shapes and the traditional straight lines still apply. But any hard and fast rules about design and tenanting may require some recalculation.

Bending more toward community gathering places than expanded goods-and-services providers, some of today’s community centers are incorporating lifestyle-like amenities. “The lines between neighborhood centers and community shopping centers have blurred a bit,” said real estate consultant Jon Eisen, managing principal of StreetSense, Bethesda, Md. “Both formats offer goods and services, but a community center will feature more and bigger.” Harkening back to a time when J.C. Penney and Sears occupied anchor positions in the larger community centers, some current community centers are attracting department stores as tenants. And the co-tenants are increasingly of the lifestyle variety.

“Community centers that feature an Ann Taylor Loft and a Joseph A. Bank and a Chico’s, married with three restaurants and a lineup of neighborhood goods and services, are attracting a broader mix of audience,” said Eisen. Goods and services will frequently include a cell-phone store, a gym, a drug store and the requisite grocer. Eisen cited a couple of community-center examples that have taken the format to another dimension.

“Caruso’s The Commons at Calabasas in the San Fernando Valley has a lifestyle component, public open spaces and amenities to attract people and keep them there for longer periods of time,” he said. The Commons at Calabasas features the expected community-center tenants: Ralphs Grocery Store is joined by Rite Aid and a dry cleaner. But the lineup also includes Williams-Sonoma, Chico’s, Barnes & Noble and a number of restaurants, “again, to attract a wider customer base,” said Eisen. Another center, this one across the country in Bethesda, Md., and developed by Federal Realty, does as much, but on a smaller scale.

“While The Commons at Calabasas is about 200,000 sq. ft., Wildwood is less than half the size but, because of the demographics that surround it, has upscaled its offerings to appeal to its customers.” Wildwood is anchored by boutique grocer Balducci’s and CVS/pharmacy, and features a salon, optician, dry cleaner, barber and three banks in 86,000 sq. ft. of space.

Although community centers have been and continue to be part of a frontline real estate strategy for retail service categories, the format clearly is emerging as a potentially viable off-mall position for lifestyle tenants. And as centers such as The Commons at Calabasas and Wildwood continue to combine aesthetic gentrification with public open spaces, dining options and lifestyle tenants, goods-and-services tenants won’t be limited to standard fare when evaluating their real estate options. However, Eisen tempers his enthusiasm for the emerging bent toward bells and whistles.

“Turning a community center into a mini Main Street isn’t always the answer,” he said. “It’s too easy for some to take any strip center and—by having all the shops face inward—call it a Main Street or a town center.” Community centers that don’t factor in customer convenience, that throw out the fundamental rules and, instead, create confusing spaces with shops facing inward and the parking outboard, Eisen said, don’t work.

“The overriding purpose of a community center is to adequately and conveniently service the community,” he said. “The trends that have inspired Main Streets and town centers—better architecture, better public open space, more public amenities—can also be applied to community centers. But it has to make sense.”