West Edmonton Mall developer helps create ‘micro’ retail concept
A member of the family that developed West Edmonton Mall and other giant international shopping centres thinks the future of retail could be small.
Mark Ghermezian has helped develop the mall’s new RAAS (Retail as a Service) market that features tiny spaces where local businesses can quickly set up shop without the time and expense of creating their own stand-alone operation.
“How do we get rid of all the barriers to … opening up a retail storefront for locals, for artisans? There’s so many great brands out there in Edmonton,” he said Tuesday.
“We have done a great job of building mega-malls. How do we build that micro-mall?”
The market provides tenants with cubes, triangles and rectangles from which to work that range in size from six square metres to little more than a table top, in space near the Santa Maria pirate ship.
It has 25 merchants selling health and beauty products, art, clothing, home decor and food, including Pura Botanicals, Apollo Originals and Moonshine Doughnuts.
With the walls for displaying merchandise, shelving and pointof-sale equipment supplied, Ghermezian described the facility as a “turnkey” operation where operators can quickly open outlets in a high-profile location without major expense.
“They just have to negotiate a lease with us, then bring their merchandise and their sales associates and start selling … Our purpose is to unleash the creative community.”
MINIMUM THREE-MONTH LEASE
He won’t reveal rental costs, but said the minimum lease lasts three months.
Ghermezian, 35, is the son of Bahman Ghermezian, who with his three brothers spearheaded construction of what was for many years the world’s largest mall, located in west Edmonton.
Through the Triple Five Group, the Ghermezians also own Minnesota’s Mall of America, the American Dream in metropolitan New York and other entertainment and retail centres.
Mark Ghermezian, who lives in New York with his wife and children, said RAAS is being incubated by T5 Capital, Triple Five’s venture capital firm in which he’s a general partner.
The RAAS concept is being tested in Edmonton and in a smaller version opening next month at the Mall of America, but Ghermezian hopes it will eventually be rolled out around the world.
“It’s a great way to combat what’s going on online, and change what you would typically see in … any retail experience,” he said.
“It’s obviously a great place to test it because of the relationship with the family and West Edmonton Mall … I think everyone has a sense of ownership of West Edmonton Mall.”
Although most of the mall’s conventional shops are part of national or international chains, Ghermezian said they aren’t worried about this size-small idea.
“They should look at us as complementary to what they have and what they do. This isn’t to undercut anything in the mall today. We’re going after local tenants and local artisans that (otherwise) couldn’t have come into the mall.”