Shopping Center Business

MAY 2017

Shopping Center Business is the leading monthly business magazine for the retail real estate industry.

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EEE 2017 256 • SHOPPING CENTER BUSINESS • May 2017 important," continued Colicchio. "It's imperative to choose the right chef-driv- en concept for your property. Food halls make great anchor tenants if done cor- rectly. You can leverage the chefs if you provide an environment where they are able to create their projects. Top chefs will appear at your spaces at different times during the year, and they can help attract crowds and do demos in any of your other tenants spaces." This panel was followed shortly after by 'Public Spaces: The New Anchor For Retail and Mixed-Use,' which discussed creating spaces for community gathering, and the effect that has on time spent at a retail property. A range of experts gave their tips and tricks for creating success- ful gathering spaces, including Michael Atwell, vice president of real estate at Olympia Development of Michigan; Clifford Warner, chairman of Mycotoo; Julie Brinkerhoff-Jacobs, president and executive senior principal of Lifescapes International Inc.; and Jeff Kreshek, vice president of West Coast leasing for Fed- eral Realty Investment Trust. "We feel that a strong concept, creative leasing and flexibility within our designs are the key to the success of our projects," said Ed Lopez, senior vice president and senior design principal of JERDE, and moderator of the public spaces panel. "We also know that public spaces can take multiple forms and shapes — we have concepts from outdoor living spaces to water-filled, themed environments with musical fountains. We have park schemes where the entire project terraces over re- tail. These sort of out of the box ideas are now becoming more popular within the U.S., and we're hoping to go further out- side of the box with some of these ideas." "Ultimately, our projects are becoming much more layered," continued Lopez. "We're using all disciplines of design — water, landscape, lighting and music — to create unique and powerful destinations for our projects. These provide greater value to projects by increasing stays and bringing more visits." After a final session on the impact of active entertainment environments on retail — which focused on pop-up retail concepts, creative placemaking and top- notch customer service — attendees mi- grated into the exhibit hall for an opening cocktail reception, sponsored by Benning Construction Company, where they were able to build new relationships and ex- plore a variety of booths from exhibitors. Wednesday, February 8, kicked off with breakfast roundtables, where colleagues and experts came together to discuss a range of topics related to entertainment and experience in shopping centers today. These sessions included discussions on everything from virtual reality and enter- Attendees were able to build on new relationships and explore a variety of booths from exhibitors during the cocktail reception. A key take away from the sessions was the importance of building an emotional connection to visitors of your center.

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