all Real Estate Industry News Archives

Retailer bankruptcies and store closings.

Lifestyle Retail Centers the “Evergreen” for Malls?

As winners and losers become apparent, lifestyle centers may be well-poised for the future.

Are lifestyle retail centers, the “evergreen” among mall formats? For several important reasons, we believe this may be true.

Let’s start with the capacity for lifestyle retail centers to adapt and retrofit over time. Most of the best lifestyle centers feature single-story retail, or at maximum two-story. And these centers are also commonly set up in main street configurations, sometimes even with a city grid (block) format. As the businesses that reside in a lifestyle change evolve, grow, get replaced, and the like, the cost of change-outs are simply less expensive than enclosed malls or shopping centers set within fixed overall shells.

Lifestyle retail centers are also less likely to be anchored by the department store and big box retailers that are facing their possible obsolescence. And where a lifestyle center has been “anchored” by a retailer or lifestyle center (such as a fitness club) that has lost its lease, the vacant store and its pad are not difficult to re-purpose for even a new land use. And since such anchors typically have had some amount of adjacent dedicated parking, re-configuring a building shell is somewhat more flexible when some surface parking is used.

Like politics, the feasibility and success of all lifestyle centers are local. Accordingly, as local market conditions change and consumer preferences evolve, the mall product augmentations may head towards location-based entertainment, to mixed-use reconfiguration, and of course, a full scraping of the original mall concept. Some of the reconfiguration possible include last-mile fulfillment for online retailers as well as dark grocers handling similar online fulfillment. Shopping centers are usually well-located with regard to their local customer support for of course these centers work well for fullfillment.

Then there’s the placemaking and “gathering place” aspects of lifestyle retail centers. The open-air design of lifestyle centers is conducive to providing attractive (and green) walkways, approaches from parking, sunshine (when available), and outdoor settings and structures that we all of enjoy. When a shopping trip is more about having an experience, enjoying some camaraderie, and doing some people watching, it becomes apparent that … just maybe … lifestyle retail centers may be the new mall “evergreen” format.

Our directory and history of lifestyle retail centers, is available at the link provided below.

Lifestyle retail centers the new mall evergreen?

Lifestyle retail centers may be the new mall evergreen, in terms of mall configuration and customer appeal.

Directory of Lifestyle Retail Centers

Arc’teryx’s Store has four “Experiential Huts”

21.09.2020 Consumer Products Fresh Monitor, News about malls and shopping centers, News about place-based technologies, News about themed entertainment and attractions

AEC’s Consumer Products Monitor

Arc’teryx’s store has four “experiential huts” throughout its two-level, 8,000 SF store space in Shanghai; the retailer’s 30th store in China. The outdoor apparel and gear store is among more than 3,000 locations globally for the retailer. Arc’teryx Equipment specializes in technical high-performance apparel, outerwear and equipment, based in North Vancouver, British Columbia. Arc’teryx Equipment is in turn owned by Amer Sports Oyj, a PRC-owned Finnish sporting goods company.

The immersive approach to the store’s design is an example of the kind of experiential retail necessary to make the -in-store visit compelling. The four different experiential huts include: the “Hardshell Hut” featuring LED screen views and sounds of the Canadian mountains; the “Gore-Tex Hut” rain room; the “Hardgoods Hut” with the brand’s hard goods and a climbing wall; and the “Brand Hut” featuring a seasonally-changing virtual reality module.

Retailers that deliver in-store experiences are also what’s needed for shopping centers and retail districts. As online retail purchases continue to rise, the relevancy of mall retail is more akin to the enduring interest of consumers for location-based entertainment. Arc’teryx’s store with four “experiential huts” is the kind of hybrid retail/LBE that will allow physical mall destinations to make sense.

An interesting description of the store is available on the SGB Media website, at: Arc’teryx Opens Global Flagship Store In Shanghai

Water City Niagara Falls, a Cocov Destinations Niagara property

The Artificial Ski and Snow Era Begins, as New Venues Open in the U.S.

19.09.2020 Location-Based Entertainment Consultants, Mega Projects Tracking and Monitor, News about location-based entertainment, News about themed entertainment and attractions

Elsewhere in the world, the artificial ski and snow era began in the 1990's.

The artificial ski and snow era begins in the U.S., as man-made facilities begin to open. These facilities featuring artificial snow and ice have become common throughout Europe, China, and other regions of the world.

The opening of Big Snow at American Dream Mall in East Rutherford (New Jersey) may be venue that marks the beginning of this new era in the U.S. American Dream Mall is a development of Triple Five Worldwide, the developer of mega-malls such as West Edmonton and Mall of America. Triple Five also has a next mega-mall in planning, the American Dream Mall in Miami, Florida. Although such places as Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre (opened 2009) at Liberty University, Pigeon Forge Snow (opened 2018), SnoBahn Colorado (2018), and Buck Hill in Burnsville, Minnesota (2016), each opened well before Big Snow, the U.S. retail and outdoor recreation industry may have needed to see Triple Five’s more large-scale examples in operation.

Outside the U.S., artificial ski and snow facilities are common throughout Europe, the UAE, Egypt, Turkey, Russia, India, Japan, and in particular, China. Between 2010 and 2019, at least 42 of these man-made projects have been completed. The European “artificial” era got its start in the 1990’s with such facilities as Vuokatti Ski Tunnel (Finland), Montana Snowcenter Westerhoven (The Netherlands), and Noeux Les Mines (Pas de Calais, France).

For real estate, retail mall, and municipalities, these artificial ski and snow venues can take many forms, and can act as an effective anchor “gathering place.” Indoor and outdoor “all weather” operation are a possibility. Recreation sports such as downhill and cross-country skiing are a popular format, but non-sport artificial environments can include all forms of immersive attractions and themed entertainment.

Outdoor recreation consultants and designers - The Artificial Ski and Snow Era Begins

Artificial snowtubing hill, conceptual design.

Directory of Artificial Ski & Snow Facilities

Facebook plans Augmented-Reality sunglasses with EssilorLuxottica

Facebook Plans Augmented-Reality Sunglasses, for a 2021 Launch

19.09.2020 Consumer Products Fresh Monitor, News about place-based technologies

Facebook Plans Augmented-Reality Sunglasses with fashion eye-wear maker EssilorLuxottica. The new smart glasses could hit retail as early as 2021 according to the company’s annoucnements at its recent Facebook Connect conference. The smart glasses will connect by wireless (Bluetooth?) to a nearby mobile phone and project an image of a mobile screen on the lenses.

To help Facebook in developing the augmented features for these smart glasses, Facebook employees will wear “Project Aria” eyeglasses in public starting this month. While this eye-wear does not have augmented reality features (and are not available now for the public), these devices allow for capturing video, audio, eye-tracking and location data to be used in designing features for the smart eye-wear.

The many free-room location-based entertainment (“LBE”) companies coming to retail have been anticipating the arrival of quality “smart” eye-wear enhanced with augmented-reality capabilities. Such smart eye-wear will allow all manner of immersive A/R experience and advertising for consumers. As well, the A/R eye-wear will be able to deliver heads-up displays of local environmental and incoming communications updates in the same way that Air Force fighter pilots view such information on their cockpit windows.

A full review of the announcement of Facebook plans for augmented-reality sunglasses, is available at Mobile Marketer: Facebook plans to sell AR-equipped smart glasses from Ray-Ban

Film Studios Development Consultants - SCP Experience

There Are 20+ New Film Studios in Development, Worldwide

18.09.2020 Mega Projects Tracking and Monitor, News about film studios and backlots

Much of the development is occurring in the U.K., Canada, and in New York.

There are 20+ new film studios in development worldwide. The slate of new production facilities is coming to market even as the global film industry copes with re-opening after the Covid-19 pandemic and the concurrent economic shutdown.

In fact, the number and scale of these new stages and production support venues may be at an all-time high for delivery of such facilities within a couple-year period. As well, this surge of studio development arrives just as burgeoning content production has been overwhelming existing facilities. In the following, we’re sure a few of these will lag due to financing and local land use approvals, but regardless, there’s a lot coming.

This new facility surge is primarily focused in the U.K., in Canada, and within the U.S., in the New York and New Jersey. Many of these new film studios are coming to market as a direct result of visionary public officials seeking local economic development through creative repurposing of former warehouses, rail yards, factories, and industrial buildings.

In the U.K., new film studios coming to market include Ashford International Studios (former Newton railway works site), Blackhall Studios (Reading), Dagenham Film Studios (at London East Business and Technical Park), OMA Film Studios (London), and Sky Studios (Elstree). Mercian Studios (Birmingham) may also be on the horizon but does not appear to have a project site fully confirmed. The Dagenham project may lag a bit with Pacifica Ventures having dropped out after being awarded the tender.

Over in Scotland, First Stage Studio (Port of Leith) now has a developer having won the tender by Screen Scotland for a repurposed site that has been used temporarily production of portions of the Disney/Marvel film, Avengers: Infinity War.

Among the largest new facilities coming to Canada are Martini Film Studios (Langley, BC) and Studio City Toronto (Ontario), and possibility, along with First Studio City (Markham) and Aeon Studio Group’s Hamilton Studio District.

In New York and New Jersey, newly-arriving film studios include Lionsgate Studios (Yonkers)), Netflix New York (Brooklyn), Sunset Park (Bush Terminal), Robert De Niro’s Wildflower Film Studio (Queens), as well as in New Jersey – Caven Point Studios (Jersey City) and the Industry Go facilities also in Jersey City.

A full list of the 20+ new film studios in development is provided in the Global Directory of Film Studios at the link below, along with a roll call of existing facilities worldwide.

Global Directory of Film Studios - Existing and Planned