Unique retail centers survive in ‘cold, cruel’ world

LATEST ADDITIONS: In the past year, Garden City Center in Cranston has attracted several new businesses, including British retailer Fat Face, Barrington Books, and L.L. Bean, which renovated an existing space for its only retail store in R.I. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
LATEST ADDITIONS: In the past year, Garden City Center in Cranston has attracted several new businesses, including British retailer Fat Face, Barrington Books, and L.L. Bean, which renovated an existing space for its only retail store in R.I. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Brick-and-mortar retail has more staying power than recent high-profile closures of department stores might indicate.

Online shopping continued to gain strength in 2016, according to retail analysts, but consumers are still flocking to well-designed, well-managed retail centers with interesting or unique features.

In Rhode Island, Garden City Center in Cranston plans to move forward on a fourth phase of development later this spring. In the past year, the center attracted several new tenants to open spaces, including L.L. Bean, which renovated an existing space for its only retail store in the Ocean State, and Fat Face, a British retailer that chose Garden City for one of its few U.S. locations.

The fourth phase of the center will include more restaurant options for patrons, and additional retail shops. It replaces a small office building that has been razed in recent months.

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Down the highway, Providence Place invested nearly $20 million in its traditional mall facilities last year, reclaiming for additional parking the empty space vacated in 2015 by former anchor J.C. Penney Co., and revamping the technology and appearance of its parking garage.

Almost immediately after Christmas, Macy’s announced closures of nearly 10 percent of its stores in the U.S. But the Providence Place anchor store, which occupies 200,000 square feet, was not included.

Generally, sales were up at the mall this past Christmas season, based on reports of customer traffic and activity in stores, said Mark Dunbar, its general manager. He did not provide figures.

Another remaking is underway at the once-traditional Rhode Island Mall, which is now operating under new ownership. Its 200,000-square-foot interior space has been gutted and divided into two distinct levels. Discount retailer Burlington Coat Factory opened in late September. It is the first new tenant under owner MCB Real Estate LLC.

Throughout 2016 and into the new year, the national retail landscape has been challenged by continuing shifts in shopping behavior, away from traditional malls and large all-purpose department stores, and toward online purchases and more recently constructed outdoor “lifestyle centers,” such as Garden City Center.

At retail centers, the social experience of shopping and meeting with friends and other people is being emphasized as much as the retail mix, according to managers.

As a result, retail is starting to look more like mixed-use.

Garden City Center, which grew around a traditional retail center, has grown steadily since 2009, when The Wilder Companies was hired to manage the facilities and growth. It now covers 544,000 square feet of retail, restaurant, services and office space.

The company has modified original buildings and developed in stages, based on demand. In 2016, it opened several new stores, including an Ethan Allen Design Center, which moved from Warwick, and children’s retailer Hanna Andersson. Its restaurants are either unique and owner-operated, or regionally known, said Thomas Wilder, a principal at The Wilder Companies.

“Today’s successful developments are more about place-making,” he said. “That was the grand opportunity at Garden City. Here, we had this somewhat tired but iconic open-air center that had seen better times. We thought it had great bones, a great base and obviously great regional access. We thought it would be a great opportunity to unite all of those elements today that make for a place.”

The market is not aimed necessarily at high-end consumers. It has shops that appeal to residents with a variety of incomes, Wilder said. And surveys have indicated its shoppers are traveling a good distance to reach it, including beyond Rhode Island into Connecticut and southeastern Massachusetts.

“It’s a pleasant experience. It’s a nonmall experience. It’s open-air,” he said.

Although Providence Place is a mall, developed with nearly 1.2 million square feet of retail space, it also has aspects of mixed-use. Its IMAX movie theater, Providence Place Cinemas 16 and IMAX, is the only one in Rhode Island, as are many of its restaurants, such as The Cheesecake Factory.

The investments made over the past year in improving the parking system are a part of that experience, said Dunbar.

“What differentiates us from online shopping is the experience,” Dunbar said. “Coming here, and touching and seeing and putting on and having dinner, and going to see a movie, that’s what differentiates us. So, the experience of the garage is important.”

In retail, flux and change should be expected. Not counting the J.C. Penney anchor space, Providence Place has had low vacancies among smaller stores in recent years. Prior to the exit of J.C. Penney, the mall occupancy was listed at 97 percent, according to company papers made public in January 2015.

The Limited, for example, recently announced it will shutter all of its stores, in a transition to online-only sales. This affects Providence Place, like all other locations for the retailer.

“The Limited closed everywhere,” Dunbar said. “You lose stores like that, but that gives you another opportunity to find a store or fashion that’s more to your customers’ liking. In essence, the customer has voted The Limited off the island. That’s what you can count on when you have something like this, is change. If you don’t stay up with what’s going on, you get left behind and it’s a cold, cruel world in retail.” •

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