Making Food an Essential Component of a Healthy Shopping Center
Two redevelopment projects in New Orleans ravaged by Hurricane Katrina more than a decade ago have sprung back to life thanks to investment dollars and a focus on food. At the Urban Land Institute’s Food and Real Estate Forum held earlier this year at the Renaissance New Orleans Arts Hotel, forum chair Jodie McLean, a South Carolina-based developer, suggested “food-focused real estate provides gathering places that can address ‘a huge epidemic in the U.S. of isolation and loneliness,'” according to a report on ULI Magazine’s website. One of the event’s keynote speakers, ULI senior resident fellow Ed McMahon, noted that “Food production and the sense of community that develops around it is now the focus of 200 ‘agrihoods‘ – master-planned residential communities built around a working farm – as well as urban residential areas.”
ESRI and DMM Data Power Orlando Biz Journal’s Interactive Map
When the Orlando Business Journal needed a map for their website to show the 70+ malls in central Florida, they knew where to turn to get more than just any old map. OBJ published “The List” featuring an interactive map with data provided by ESRI and DMM. The List provided various details (GLA, Total Population, Total Households, Average Disposable Income, etc) about each mall with a simple click on a red dot. The information is, of course, extremely helpful. “Identifiers such as average disposable income, tourist attractions, types of restaurants and hotels are key factors that can play a big part in where shopping centers are located.”
Give ’em a Place to Rest and They’ll Shop and Spend More
So your mall has lots of food options, major high-end, mid-range and budget-friendly shopping options, entertainment for children and adults of all ages. What happens when out-of-towners want to stay and do more while there at the mall? Do they drive ten miles up the road for the nearest hotel, or do they reconsider and not stay and spend another day at your mall at all? Dallas-based Sam Moon Group, without the benefit of a casino, is reportedly looking to keep shoppers as close as possible (learning the ways of other malls before them) without opening up cots in the hallways or encouraging overnights in a mattress store or in the tents of an outdoor sports retailer. The Dallas Morning News recently reported that Stonebriar Centre located in Frisco, TX, could get a Hyatt Regency hotel connected right to the mall.
VISIT DMM AT ICSC’S RECON 2016
DMM will be at RECon 2016, the ICSC’s convention that brings together retail real estate professionals from around the world. The show gets underway May 23rd and runs through the 25th at the Las Vegas Convention Center and Westgate Las Vegas Hotel. Come visit us at our booth (#N1329) and learn more about our Retail Boundaries products. Come get a personal demonstration, find out what’s in store for ShoppingCenters.com down the line, or just come by and say hi.
