Cambridge Properties is primarily a retail developer. But its proposed University City entertainment district in Charlotte, N.C., is unlikely to include soft-goods retailers as tenants.
“We’re looking to ‘Amazon proof’ the district,” explains Jay Priester, Jr., Cambridge’s Vice President of Leasing and Development. In other words, Cambridge is looking for tenants that don’t compete with the online monolith.
Good luck with that. Online shopping captured nearly 12% of total U.S. retail sales last year, according to Commerce Department estimates. It is expected to grow at an 8–12% clip annually through 2020, according to National Retail Federation projections.
Consequently, some entertainment districts are going light on retail, partly because “the bulk of the leasing demand is for dining and entertainment,” say Barry Hand, a Principal with design mega-firm Gensler in Dallas.
But not every developer or AEC firm believes that retailing is anathema to an entertainment district. The Gila River Indian Community in Arizona intends to develop a 68,000-sf entertainment district in Phoenix that would bridge its Wild Horse Pass Hotel & Casino and Phoenix Premium Outlets.
Quite a bit of the new development around the L.A. Live entertainment district in downtown Los Angeles is mixed-use with a strong retail component. “When you’re adding residential to an entertainment district, retail becomes an ‘I need’ space,” says Daun St. Amand, a Senior Vice President for CallisonRTKL.
Callison designed Oceanwide Plaza, a three-tower, 1.5-million-sf residential and hotel building that is scheduled to open across the street from L.A. Live in early 2019. Oceanwide will include roughly 153,000 sf of specialty retail shops. St. Amand says that AEG, L.A. Live’s developer, has been keen on new construction around the district that offers retail options, which downtown Los Angeles lacks.
Five hundred thousand people work in downtown L.A.; 50,000-60,000 live there. Another 10,000 housing units in downtown’s South Park neighborhood will be delivered within the next two years. “Entertainment districts are becoming more like community centers, where people can come and hang out,” says Ed Sachse, Executive Managing Director–Investments and Leasing Brokerage for Kennedy Wilson Properties, Oceanwide's leasing broker. “People are looking for experiential environments, and retail is becoming more like that.”
He points to sports apparel and high-end boutiques as examples of retailers that continue to lure shoppers. Oceanwide, he says, will have around 25 shops ranging from 1,500 to 10,000 sf, all selling “affordable luxury” products.
Related Stories
Mixed-Use | Aug 17, 2020
New Sydney towers will have the world’s first AI-driven facade system
SOM and Fender Katsalidis are designing the project.
Mixed-Use | Aug 4, 2020
San Jose’s new tallest building tops out
Steinberg Hart designed the project.
Mixed-Use | Jul 27, 2020
$92 million reconstruction of St. Petersburg Municipal Pier completes
Rogers Partners, ASD | SKY, and landscape architect Ken Smith Workshop designed the project.
Mixed-Use | Jul 22, 2020
Skanska selects Pickard Chilton to design innovative office tower in Bellevue, Wash.
The 800,000-gsf mixed-use project is located at 10660 NE 8th Street.
Mixed-Use | Jul 21, 2020
Phase one of The Orbit masterplan detailed for Innisfil, Ontario
Partisans is designing the project.
Mixed-Use | Jul 20, 2020
J. Small Investments, Lyda Hill Philanthropies have unveiled plans for a 23-acre mixed-use development in Dallas
The vacant campus was purchased from ExxonMobil Oil Corporation in 2015.
Mixed-Use | Jul 17, 2020
Ryan Companies breaks ground on 122-acre Highland Bridge redevelopment in St. Paul, Minn.
The community’s goal is to provide 100% renewable energy to its houses and businesses.
Mixed-Use | Jul 15, 2020
1928 hotel reimagined as new residential and cultural hub in Merced, Calif.
Page & Turnbull designed the project.
Mixed-Use | Jul 14, 2020
Apartments and condos occupy what was once a five-story car dealership
Wisznia | Architecture+Development designed, developed, and is managing the project.
Mixed-Use | Feb 21, 2020
SB Architects to design Fort Lauderdale’s FATVillage mixed-use destination
The project will build upon the existing FATVillage Arts District.