Here, Commerce + Communities Today continues its series checking in with experts about the strategies that worked in 2021. These strategies are the best guideposts to help marketplaces professionals navigate 2022. Here’s Part 2:
MORE OF WHAT WORKED IN 2021:
Tech in Retailers’ Real Estate Decisions
Portfolio Optimization
Sustainability in Development
Selling Fresh Food at Economy of Scale
Reinventing and Reinvesting
Customer Relationship Management
Focusing on the Customer Experience
Reimagining Existing Spaces
Retailers ramped up their results last year by rethinking store sizes, aisle widths and everything in between. RSP Architects has been encouraging its landlord clients similarly to repurpose space in creative ways. “Typically, there is an overabundance of retail [gross leasable area] at mixed-use developments,” explained Jeff Hysjulien, a principal at the firm. “We have found that you can take some of that square footage to create a heart for the project, an outdoor community or civic gathering place that can be heavily programmed with events by the developer.”
One example is RSP’s remake of a dated plaza at Bayshore in northern Milwaukee. Built in 1954, the open-air project, now owned by Cypress Equities, boasts more than 75 shops, restaurants and offices, along with lofts and condo-style apartments. Major tenants include Apple, Trader Joe’s, H&M, The Cheesecake Factory, Athleta and Banana Republic. “The plaza space at Bayshore was developed back in the early 2000s and was heavily terraced,” Hysjulien explained. “Those tiers and levels functioned as a kind of barrier and made it difficult for people to move around in a flexible way. We worked with a landscaping team to fill in those terraced spaces and ‘level the playing field.’”
To enliven the spacious and newly flat plaza, pictured at top, RSP brought in turf, built shade structures, commissioned murals by local artists and created outdoor seating areas for new food-and-beverage operators.
A gigantic media wall further activated the space. Bayshore uses it to show movies — recently, Home Alone 2 — as well as live broadcasts of Big Ten football and other events.
RSP’s renovation design for the mixed-use Cocowalk in Miami centered on what Hysjulien describes as a “civic oasis.” Built in the 1990s, Cocowalk’s maze-like design tended to confuse visitors. Through some strategic demolition of parts of that configuration, RSP clarified the sight lines and created a central plaza. The reinvented space — the project was a joint venture of Comras Co., Grass River Property and majority partner Federal — is ringed by local boutiques.
RSP added fountains, planters and even a 60-foot kapok tree to add a dramatic local touch.
Cocowalk’s “oasis”
“That kapok tree became kind of the centerpiece,” Hysjulien said. “It’s almost a sculptural element. Now Cocowalk can program events like outdoor yoga that really draw people in beyond just the retail component. It has become a place where people want to be.”