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VINTAGE 82 • SHOPPING CENTER BUSINESS • August 2016 and a number of national tenants. "We are reusing a few pages from the traditional playbook of regional malls, but we are also doing some very original approaches to position our properties correctly in the market," says Desco. "It depends on the market situation and the facility that we have to work with." "We think entertainment and food is a critical part of the tenant mix," says Licht. "But we want to be specific to the market. We have to serve the market's needs first and foremost, and that isn't always a mov- ie theater or restaurants." In East Wenatchee, Washington, the company owns Wenatchee Valley Mall, which is the only regional mall within a 100-mile drive. Shortly after Vintage ac- quired the center, a 46,000-square-foot Sears anchor store closed. Vintage studied the market's voids and realized that many of the goods sold by Sears were among those needed. Vintage leased a smaller ,separate space to a Sears Hometown store franchisee. Meanwhile, Vintage discovered that more hunting and fishing licenses are issued in that area of Wash- ington than anywhere else in the state, yet there was no outdoor-oriented sporting goods store. Vintage landed a deal with Sportsman's Warehouse to take the old Sears' space. Sportsman's Warehouse is now doing a better sales volume than the former Sears store was. Similarly, at Vin- tage's Heritage Mall in Albany, Oregon, which it acquired in late 2012, when Sears left, the company signed a lease with a Sears Hometown store for a vacant space. A dark Gottschalk's department store was backfilled by Hobby Lobby. "Listening to the market and position- ing our centers to take advantage of their wants and needs is how we operate," says Licht. "The biggest part of what we do is make the mall synergistically work while we are redeveloping it," says Desco. "As we get into it and start to work on the property, we begin to see the sales increase. That is the byproduct of our efforts. We go to tenants who we think might be interested in the market and show them what we've been able to do by management alone — the increases that we've been able to gen- erate for other tenants just by working with them and changing the perception of the center in the market." Kay Jewelers, as well as Bath and Body Works, at SouthBay Pavilion had never been in the mall and had turned down the mall continually until they saw the significant improvements to the tenants, sales and facility. "We share what our customers are say- ing with prospective tenants," says Licht. "We do intercept studies that tell us what kind of stores the customers want. Our customer service and security employees also speak regularly with customers and make note of what tenants they are seek- ing. At one center, we had security report that they were hearing repeated requests from customers looking for Victoria's Se- cret. There wasn't a store at the center, so we approached the retailer with that information." Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works have recently signed leases at SouthBay Pavilion. JC Penney, which has anchored the center for many years, has seen sales increase as well, recently open- ing a Sephora location within the store. Vintage has doubled the sales volume at the center since acquiring it in 2009. "The center was 50 percent occupied when we acquired it, mostly with local tenants," says Hocker. "Many developers did not know what to do with it, so they passed on it when it was on the market. While the theater and other tenants were catalysts for our change, it was also hun- dreds and hundreds of details throughout the mall, like upgrading the storefronts, signage and common areas." In East Wenatchee, customer inter- views revealed that a number of people were getting together in the community and ordering a particular brand of cloth- ing from another department store out of town that carried the brands they liked. Vintage contacted the Macy's buyers and encouraged them to check the online and mail orders from Wenatchee to see what shoppers were buying. As a result, the Ma- cy's store began carrying new brands and sales improved. A Marshall's that opened at the mall had to bring in goods more frequently after its initial opening due to demand. The company also brought Olive Garden to Wenatchee Valley Mall, which was the top restaurant requested by residents. "With our long relationships with the different retailers and the team's vast knowledge of what it takes to lease and turnaround a center, we really try to give the community what they are looking for," says Carla Sands. Each of Vintage's centers has a local marketing director that creates defined plans for the center, including outreach and communication plans with the com- Wenatchee Valley Mall in Washington State has seen increased sales with the addition of retailers that serve the market's needs.