What are the right decisions? It has been 63 years since the first enclosed mall opened in Minnesota. But in recent years many of the Midwest’s malls–even Wisconsin’s Bayshore Mall which became Glendale’s “Town Center” during its rebirth in the north Milwaukee suburb–have seen their share of struggles. Having turned itself ‘inside out” in the past decade by adding a plethora of new outdoor access storefronts, cafes, and pedestrian-oriented outdoor spaces, the Glendale mall’s manager last year proposed yet another vacancy-induced overhaul for the site.
Similar struggles plague many communities. A few are repurposing their malls into new uses altogether, becoming tech hubs, offices, libraries, church auditoriums or medical centers. Efforts to revive downtown urban malls such as Milwaukee’s Grand Avenue Mall with mixed-use redevelopment are moving forward with City financing. Others are turning themselves inside out and creating more European-style outdoor spaces. Representatives of malls like Bayshore, Mayfair, Janesville Mall and Hilldale Mall in Wisconsin and Muncie Mall in Indiana are asking, “What are the right decisions to make now, for the future? How can we look at impacts before we rebuild?”
In Sheboygan, Memorial Mall was once the city’s shopping hub. But the mall was partially demolished in 2017 and replaced with a grocery store. Other communities have chosen to redevelop for housing or medical uses.
Are shopping malls dying out…or are they ripe for creative reinvestment? According to some experts, they are just in transition. Here in the Midwest, malls have been on the cutting edge of the shopping destination evolution since the advent of the Mall of America–adding more attractions and features and making shopping almost secondary. Today we are seeing the bar raised even higher. With shopping online now ubiquitous, a relatively steady pre-COVID-19 regional mall vanancy rate of 9.3% in the U.S. now rising sharply throughout 2020, and a changing demographic coming into their own, younger consumers have demonstrated their priorities lie firmly with experiences rather than on material things. The result: malls anchored not by the big box but by things like bowling alleys, fitness centers, brew pubs, move theaters, indoor skiing, or rock climbing experiences.
TP3 has the tool set needed to understand, re-imagine and reinvigorate those places. Working with real estate and redevelopment in communities that include many of the Midwest’s beleaguered shopping centers and malls, TP3 is keeping its eye on this growing real estate opportunity–and devising ways to match mall redevelopment with current and future economic trends. We can help local and regional communities and property owners get a realistic snapshot of the potential, examine future economic impacts of various use scenarios, and create a viable opportunity that transforms existing assets into new and more sustainable uses for the changing economy of the foreseeable future.
