BY JENNIFER BOTT - FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER September 27, 2000
A new buzz in retail development is dredging up some very familiar mall names. As retailers exhaust their possibilities for new store locations, some are taking a second look at older, well-established spots to set up shop. Probably the fastest and least-expensive way to rejuvenate a mall is to snag a big-name tenant that can help attract other stores.
The demalling strategy
Other older malls have taken this big-tenant concept a step further, converting their sites into strip centers. The strategy -- called demalling -- is to make shopping more convenient for consumers. So instead of having to traipse through the mall to access one store, at a so-called "power center" shoppers can simply pull their cars up to the store's doors, park and walk in.
Tearing down
Some experts also question how older malls with huge portions of real estate facing away from main roads can convert to the power center concept. That was the case at Arborland Mall in Ann Arbor.So when Joseph Freed & Associates of Wheeling, Ill., bought the enclosed mall in 1997 they tore it down and rebuilt.
