USA TODAY International Edition
Fitness helps fill retail void at malls
Healthy options in vogue as more stores close doors
When Tara Gilad came across an empty Subway sandwich shop at the Nut Tree Plaza in Vacaville, Calif., she saw an opportunity.
Now Gilad, founder of the healthy food chain Vitality Bowls, will be selling her soups, Acai meals and smoothies out of the former sandwich shop. And she has her eye on a few of the roughly 500 other locations Subway is planning to close this year.
“The space itself is desirable for us because they’re usually the same size,” Gilad says. “It is an opportunity for us.”
In the world of retail, it’s increasingly out with the old and in with new wellness-oriented gyms and eateries that are in vogue among consumers.
A growing number of Pilates studios, juice shops and other fitness and health-focused businesses are filling the void as companies such as Sears, J.C. Penney, Toys R Us and Subway shutter locations.
“We are definitely seeing an increase in fitness- and lifestyle-oriented tenants moving into space previously occupied by retail tenants,” says Stephen Lebovitz, CEO of CBL & Associates, which owns and manages 119 retail properties.
The shift is not only being spurred by retail owners catering to the changing tastes of customers who want to do more than shop when they hit the mall, but wellness businesses that desire the foot traffic and ready-made storefronts left behind when traditional stores and restaurants make an exit.
Shaun Grove, president of the Club Pilates fitness chain, expects that in roughly the next year, 5% to 10% of their clubs will be located in spaces that once housed retailers.
At outdoor malls, “we find more of these Toys R Us (stores) and the Sears and the Blockbusters that have gone out of business,” Grove says.
“What we’re seeing ... is these landlords wanting to break up those centers into four or five pieces and bring in different boutique fitness concepts that are all very complementary.”
CBL Properties said in the first quarter of this year, 70% of its new leasing activity was for non-retail uses. At CBL’s York Galleria in York, Pa., a one-time J.C. Penney houses a Golds Gym along with Marshall’s and H&M. And a Planet Fitness is being built as part of the redevelopment of another J.C. Penney at CBL’s Eastland Mall in Bloomington, Ill.
GGP, a company with 125 retail properties, says nearly three-quarters of a million square feet of its retail space will be signed to fitness-oriented businesses by the end of 2018.
“Our job is to figure out ... what does the American consumer want,” says Melinda Holland, senior vice president of business development at GGP. “It’s all about fitness ... and it’s about healthy lifestyle. So that’s the type of retailer that we’re going to try and bring into our shopping centers.”