Remember when food courts were super cool?
Me neither. At best, they remain a fixture in shopping malls across the land, an oasis where almost every member of the family can find something appealing to eat, then keep on shopping.
In a one-size-feeds-all world, food courts represent a source of quick fuel served fairly cheaply. And there’s a sort of safety in their sameness. Whether you’re in Orlando, Memphis or Seattle, just about every suburban retail shopping mall seems to boast a Sbarro, Chick-fil-A, Panda Express and Cinnabon. They’re as emblematic of old-school retail as the big-box department stores that anchor the malls’ corners.
Except those brick-and-mortar monoliths are endangered, as witnessed by scores of headlines heralding bankruptcies and closings. Online shopping and shifting consumer behavior are giving way to a different model: lifestyle centers boasting a fresh, new message.
“Eat, Shop, Play, Work, Stay, Live” — variations on that promise accompany most every center. Unlike the enclosed malls, those open-air warrens echo a kind of blue-sky freedom, one that goes beyond “shop and leave.”
According to the Nielsen organization, such lifestyle centers are increasingly viewed as activity centers, “elevating their purpose beyond simply offering an outlet to buy groceries or pick up a new blouse,” a 2014 report states.
Exuberant storefronts seem almost the least of lifestyle centers such as Legacy Village in Lyndhurst, Crocker Park in Westlake and Northeast Ohio’s latest entry, Pinecrest, under construction in Orange Village. These “mini-cities” are carefully conceived economic communities composed of elements of everyday life, from fitness centers and supermarkets to cinemas.
There are places to work, beyond the sales jobs that retailers offer. American Greetings Corp. relocated its international headquarters to a five-story, 655,000-square-foot building on an expansion of the Crocker Park property. Pinecrest promises 150,000 square feet of Class A office space. Legacy Village offers 20,000 square feet of offices on the third level of one of its buildings.
There are places to live. Pinecrest will lease 87 luxury apartments. Crocker Park Living, situated on Market Street in the heart of the center, offers a variety of one- and two-bedroom properties, as well as a trove of adjacent condominiums.
There are places to stay. Pinecrest will be home to a 145-room Marriott AC Hotel. Legacy Village and Crocker Park are home to, respectively, the Hyatt Place Cleveland/Lyndhurst and Hyatt Place Cleveland/Westlake.
“As (they) remain prominent in our culture and consciousness, developers and retailers face big opportunities to activate communities and become a central gathering space for consumers,” the Nielsen report says.
Enter restaurants.
Residents in particular want something more than fast food burgers and similar offerings. Apart from the logistics of a food court enclosure, those who live on premises or nearby are drawn to places that appeal to the modern sensibilities of creative dining.
Adam Fishman, principal for Fairmount Properties, which is developing the Pinecrest project, said food service operations no longer are merely an amenity to keep shoppers in a retail complex. They are an essential draw.
“In many ways, restaurants have become the new anchor tenants for the kind of live-work-play environments we hope to create,” he said. “For us, we’re trying to create places, help make places, that have a sort of magical, social engineering to them. One of the best ways is to offer varying food options.”
Stores such as Target and Whole Foods and specialty retailers such as REI, Pottery Barn and William-Sonoma are important consumer destinations, Fishman said.
“But let’s face it: People like to go out to eat,” he added. “And they’re cooking less, at an increasing rate. Having a multitude of dining options is essential, so that a couple or family can say, ‘Let’s just go to Pinecrest and find a place to eat.’
“It creates a kind of energy, and that builds upon itself to make these districts sustainable — that they’ll work for a long time, and people will come to them for a long time.”
The changing brick-and-mortar retail climate also forces the hand of existing retail center operators.
Jerry Herman of Jerome J. Herman and Associates Commercial Real Estate Brokerage sees the rise of restaurants in lifestyle centers from a different angle.
“A lot of the owners of malls in the country are finding a lot of space coming back to them through closings of retail. And a lot of them are saying, ‘We need lifestyle centers.’
“For a long time, restaurants were looked down among them,” Herman said. “Now they’re considered traffic-generators.”
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