Evolution of area shopping centers continuing
February 25, 2007
BY JAMES SCHLETT
Nat King Cole was not singing on the loudspeakers. There was a fireplace, but chestnuts were not roasting on an open fire in it. Yet when a Cheesecake Factory restaurant opened at Colonie Center late last summer, mall General Manager Joseph Millet said it seemed like "Christmas in September." Patrons lined up outside upstate New York's first Cheesecake Factory to get in and taste the 50-plus varieties of the delectable dessert served there. The restaurant's opening was one of the strongest the Calabasas, Calif., chain ever experienced, resulting in weekly revenues of up to $280,000. And after dining, many customers ventured into the mall, creating a shopping atmosphere retailers generally see only during the holidays.
"As a result of these phenomenal sales volumes and following the recent completion of the interior renovations of the mall, we expect sales at Colonie to increase substantially. The sales results being reported by Cheesecake are even more encouraging when you consider the fact that Cheesecake is the first of five new powerful-drawing junior anchors coming to the Colonie Center" in 2007, said Larry Feldman, chairman and chief executive officer of Feldman Mall Properties.
Feldman's Long Island real estate investment trust bought the 1.2 million-square-foot Colonie mall in February 2005, and by the following summer, it started giving it a $70 million renovation.
Along with equipping the 41-year-old mall with new flooring, Adirondack-style lounges and a 50-foot-tall fireplace, Feldman reached agreements with five junior anchors expected to attract more traffic into the mall.
For years, the Macy's and Sears at opposite ends of the mall have siphoned shopper traffic away from the retailers stuck between those anchors. However, Feldman plans to reverse that trend by bringing to the mall a Barnes and Noble, a P.F. Chang restaurant, an L.L. Bean retail store and a 14-screen Regal Cinemas.
"Enclosed malls are looking for something to give them a push," said Jeffrey Corcoran of Applied Success Retail Consultants in Ballston Lake.
But the push Colonie Center got from Cheesecake Factory will seem more like a nudge compared to the shove it should get when its other new tenants move in during this year's second half. The third-floor theater will feature stadium seating, stand almost 100 feet tall and is expected to draw 1 million patrons annually. The Regal construction started in October and is expected to be completed by summer.
Adding by subtracting
While Corcoran called the Colonie Center renovation the Capital Region's biggest mall development in 2006, it was far from being the most revolutionary. Even the 1.7 million-square-foot Crossgates Mall in Guilderland added a bookstore to its tenant roster when Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Borders Group opened a 36,700-square-foot store in August in the former T.J. Maxx space.
The construction that started at Clifton Park Center last spring was the most innovative for an area shopping center since Niskayuna's Mohawk Mall was razed and rebuilt as Mohawk Commons in 2003, Corcoran said. Although the Colonie Center project does not entail as much demolition work as those at Clifton Park Center and Mohawk Mall, it will feature some open-air qualities. Most of the Colonie mall's new tenants will have outside storefronts.
"It really brings the stores outside, which is what we're seeing at Mohawk Commons and Clifton Park Center," said Mark Breslin, vice president and general manager of Turner Construction, the Albany construction company heading the overhaul of Colonie Center.
DSG Construction in May started converting its 659,000-square-foot Clifton Park mall into an open-air shopping center. By tearing down the mall's 100,000-square-foot corridor outside Marshalls, DCG created more storefronts and more parking closer to the mall, giving it a Main Street feel.
"Clifton Park Center is our first peek at what malls in the rest of the country are doing," said Corcoran.
DCG completed its demolition work in November and entered the holidays with at least four new tenants. Rick Eaglestone, the Clifton Park developer's vice president of commercial management, said the mall will likely focus on developing stores outside the main mall and bringing aboard more new tenants this spring. Initial plans called for the construction of two 25,000-square-foot retail spaces and three restaurants of varying sizes on the mall's 55-acre property. A 15,000-square-foot retail store or restaurant was also proposed.
By demolishing Clifton Park Center's central corridor, DCG detached the J.C. Penney from the mall's main body. While DCG sees Penney serving the shopping center better when separated from it, the Macerich Company sees the department store as a crucial asset attached to its Wilton Mall.
Santa Monica, Calif.-based Macerich expects to complete expanding the Wilton Mall's Penney, which will go to 84,000 square feet from 50,000 square feet. Macerich bought the 750,000-square-foot Wilton shopping center in 2005 from Rochester's Wilmorite, along with 11 other properties, including the Rotterdam Square mall. The owners of Rotterdam Square and Latham Circle Mall have not announced plans for any significant changes to their shopping centers.
"It's nice to have a location where you can walk into one location and then walk into a specialty store without having to go outside," said Wilton Mall Senior Property Manager Max Whitley.
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