REAL ESTATE

The Randall Park Mall outside of Cleveland was part of retail history in the mid-70’s when it debuted as “The World’s Biggest Mall.” Now the site becomes woven into the retail narrative of the 21st Century.  

With traditional anchors closing shop, malls nationwide are struggling to make themselves part of the entertainment business. None, however, are likely to do it as literally as Westfield’s Century City.  

Riverstone Capital Group has purchased the 43,199-sq.-ft. Shops at Lexington Circle in the Atlanta suburb of Peachtree City.   Anchored by a Sprouts Farmers Market and located on the West Highway 54 retail corridor, the property offered for sale by Mirabeland Investments and Concordia Properties was not on the market long, according to the deal’s broker.  

Chains close stores, and chains open stores. Legendary cataloger and online retailer L.L. Bean is one of the latter, opening its 33rd store outside of Maine and its fourth in the state of Virginia.   This week’s debut came at The Shops at Stonefield, a 265,000-sq.-ft. lifestyle center in Charlottesville that was acquired by O’Connor Capital Partners last year.  

International architects, developers and municipalities have been pushing the commercial real estate envelope for generations, and International design ideals are increasingly taking root in the U.S. From unique communal environments that encourage social engagement to innovative entertainment concepts and extreme sports, domestic developers are slowly but surely integrating formerly international elements into centers. In many ways, this is driven by consumer demand for an experience — coupled with increasingly dense markets that require more creative thinking. 

Everything you know about the battle between online and physical retail is probably wrong, according to a report issued this week by CBRE.   As business analysts and retail pundits focus on store closings, they miss the fact that 58% of retail warehouse space was leased by brick-and-mortar retailers last. Only a third of such space was leased by pure-play internet sellers.  

Simon Property Group has agreed to a settlement with the office of New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman that will have it loosening its stranglehold on the outlet business in Metropolitan New York.   Schneiderman maintained that Simon’s Woodbury Common outlet center in the Hudson River Valley owned a virtual monopoly in the region — including New York City — by virtue of a clause in tenant leases that forbid the opening other outlet stores within a 60-mile radius.   

Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy delivered a stump speech there not long after it opened in 1960. Legions of thriving General Motors employees kept it thriving for decades. But Tech Plaza in Warren, Michigan, suffered a crushing blow when Walmart left in 2008, and the center was nearly vacant when Detroit-based Petzold Enterprises acquired it in 2014.