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
| Aug 11, 2010
PCL Construction, HITT Contracting among nation's largest commercial building contractors, according to BD+C's Giants 300 report
A ranking of the Top 50 Commercial Contractors based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Webcor, Hunt Construction lead the way in mixed-use construction, according to BD+C's Giants 300 report
A ranking of the Top 30 Mixed-Use Contractors based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Report: Fraud levels fall for construction industry, but companies still losing $6.4 million on average
The global construction, engineering and infrastructure industry saw a significant decline in fraud activity with companies losing an average of $6.4 million over the last three years, according to the latest edition of the Kroll Annual Global Fraud Report, released today at the Association of Corporate Counsel’s 2009 Annual Meeting in Boston. This new figure represents less than half of last year’s amount of $14.2 million.
| Aug 11, 2010
First CityCenter projects earn LEED Gold
CityCenter announced today that it has received three Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design LEED Gold certifications from the U.S. Green Building Council for: 1) ARIA Resort's hotel tower; 2) ARIA Resort's convention center and theater; 3) Vdara Hotel. ARIA and Vdara will open in December on the Las Vegas Strip and are the first of CityCenter's developments to be LEED certified.
| Aug 11, 2010
And the world's tallest building is…
At more than 2,600 feet high, the Burj Dubai (right) can still lay claim to the title of world's tallest building—although like all other super-tall buildings, its exact height will have to be recalculated now that the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) announced a change to its height criteria.
| Aug 11, 2010
Spa resort in harmony with mountain setting
The Sparkling Hill Resort and Wellness Hotel in Vernon, B.C., looks as if it was chiseled out of bedrock and jutting from the mountainside. Designed by the Victoria, B.C., office of Cannon Design, the 240,000-sf resort has 152 guest rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows and spa-like bathrooms, as well as a signature 20,000-sf whole-body wellness spa with treatment rooms designed to feel like they...
| Aug 11, 2010
Triangular tower targets travelers
Chicago-based Goettsch Partners is designing a new mixed-use high-rise for the Chinese city of Dalian, located on the Yellow Sea coast. Developed by Hong Kong-based China Resources Land Limited, the tower will have almost 1.1 million sf, which includes a 377-room Grand Hyatt hotel, 84 apartments, three restaurants, banquet space, and a spa and fitness center.
| Aug 11, 2010
CityCenter projects get LEED Gold
MGM Mirage and Infinity World Development have received LEED Gold certification for the first three CityCenter projects: the ARIA Resort hotel tower, ARIA Resort convention center and theater, and the Vdara Hotel (above). The CityCenter developers anticipate Gold or Silver LEED certification for the project's remaining developments, which include a Mandarin Oriental hotel, a 500,000-sf retail a...
| Aug 11, 2010
RMJM unveils design details for $1B green development in Turkey
RMJM has unveiled the design for the $1 billion Varyap Meridian development it is master planning in Istanbul, Turkey's Atasehir district, a new residential and business district. Set on a highly visible site that features panoramic views stretching from the Bosporus Strait in the west to the Sea of Marmara to the south, the 372,000-square-meter development includes a 60-story tower, 1,500 resi...
| Aug 11, 2010
'Feebate' program to reward green buildings in Portland, Ore.
Officials in Portland, Ore., have proposed a green building incentive program that would be the first of its kind in the U.S. Under the program, new commercial buildings, 20,000 sf or larger, that meet Oregon's state building code would be assessed a fee by the city of up to $3.46/sf. The fee would be waived for buildings that achieve LEED Silver certification from the U.