Malls bank on green space to lure shoppers
Seeking ways to remain competitive, owners add outdoor community areas for yoga, movie nights and kids’ play
Malls are adding green spaces where kids can run around or adults can practice yoga to attract shoppers and stave off mounting pressure from online retailers.
Mall owners have long relied on attractions such as carousels, playgrounds and iceskating rinks to draw shoppers.
The latest trend in mall attractions is decidedly more simple: green space where adults can practice yoga, kids can run around and families can enjoy a movie night on the lawn.
“Malls are doing everything they can to reinvent themselves and stay competitive and successful,” said Ed Wulfe, chairman and CEO of Houston-based retail brokerage Wulfe & Co. “One way they’re doing that is by adding more outdoor community spaces, which serve to drive traffic to stores.”
First Colony Mall, owned by Chicago-based retail property giant GGP, is the latest in the Houston area to add green space. Construction crews earlier this summer began renovating the outdoor wing of the 1.2 million-square-foot mall in Sugar Land, tearing out two reflecting ponds with plans to replace them with a large artificial lawn.
The green space is expected to open in early October, in time for the holiday shopping season.
“The fountain we had was a great place for people to take pictures and walk through, but it was a static amenity,” said Heidi Westlund, the mall’s senior general manager. “What we’re trying to do is to activate the area.”
Mall owners, facing mount-
ing pressure from the growing popularity of e-commerce, are increasingly focused on creating a brick-and-mortar experience that can’t be replicated online. In recent years, malls have focused on adding high-end restaurants, bars and movie theaters to attract patrons.
Green space is a natural extension of that movement, one that takes a page out of urban planning around parks, said Randy Holcombe, GGP’s senior director of restaurant leasing.
“You’re seeing green space around the country,” Holcombe said. “It stems out of the new urbanism movement, the idea of walkable communities.”
Mixed-use developers have for years incorporated green space to draw people to live, work and play in their so-called lifestyle centers. Green space has popped up in several mixed-use projects across the Houston area, including CityCentre, Market Street-The Woodlands, LaCenterra in Katy, The Boardwalk—Towne Lake in Cypress and King’s Harbor in Kingwood.
Baybrook Mall in Friendswood was one of the first traditional malls in Houston to incorporate green space into its property. A 2015 expansion brought a football field-sized natural lawn surrounded by 16 new restaurants to the mall.
Others, such as Memorial City Mall and First Colony Mall, have followed suit.
Baybrook Mall’s lawn was an immediate hit with shoppers, said Jeff Gionette, the mall’s senior general manager.
“We’ve seen an increase in families and larger groups of guests visiting the mall,” Gionette said. “It’s encouraged our guests to dwell and stay longer.”
GGP, which owns and operates five malls in the Houston area, including Baybrook and First Colony, has seen similar success with green spaces in its other properties, such as Oakbrook Mall in Chicago, where crowds gather regularly for movie nights.
The Chicago-based company is now looking at adding green space to more of its malls. GGP is one of the largest mall owners nationally, with 125 properties in 40 states totaling 121 million square feet of retail space.
At First Colony Mall, six restaurants will overlook the new green space, allowing parents to watch their children play while eating meals on the patio. The lawn will be surrounded by Adirondack chairs and tables, shade structures and lawn games such as corn hole and oversized Connect Four.
On one end, a video screen spanning 13 feet tall and 21 feet wide will be used to play films, live music, and Texans and Astros games. The mall plans to host regular events on the lawn, which could include yoga sessions in the morning and game watch parties in the evenings.
Three new restaurants will join DiMassi’s Mediterranean Cafe, Grimaldi’s pizzeria and the Cheesecake Factory at the front of the lawn. The restaurants will be open throughout the construction.
Breakers Korean BBQ will replace the former World of Beer and Red Mango Cafe. Blue Fish Sushi will take the place of the former Mia Bella Trattoria. A third restaurant will be announced soon.
Westlund, the general manager at First Colony Mall, said she is excited to see how her customers, particularly mall walkers and taichi groups, will use the new green space.
“The lawn can provide endless opportunities to create experiences for our customers,” Westlund said. “It’s going to add another dimension to the mall experience.”