November 12, 2019 by CallisonRTKL

The New American Mall

CallisonRTKL Vice President Lloyd Baker explores global retail trends and what “anchor-less” means for the quintessentially American shopping model

The prevailing wisdom is that traditional enclosed malls in America are a dying building form. While that may be true in communities that are better served by big box retailers and ever-improving front door delivery, it is not true for many urban and even some solidly performing suburban malls, that have defied closure in at least three economic downturns. What is beyond doubt is that malls are changing, and many of these new forms and formats are coming from outside the United States.

In the United States, the birthplace of the mall as we know it, the standard model relies on two department stores “anchoring” each end with smaller retail shops lining the concourse in between. By and large, the anchors brought in the masses and the smaller retailers, surviving on the footfall of visitors to and between the department stores, added the local color and special sauce.

Many once-ubiquitous department stores are gone or struggling, resulting in empty anchor space and leaving mall owners searching to find a viable, anchor-less way forward.

Anchor-less Doesn’t Mean Boring

In one form or another, mall owners and developers are all experimenting with new forms of retail, clusters of retail, restaurant districts, entertainment districts, and non-fashion anchors (such as gyms, supermarkets, food halls, and medical facilities) to replace the model that has been replicated across the United States and around the world. Much of this effort is a reaction to economic and social trends, but it is also dictated by existing mall buildings and parking fields that were carefully designed to reinforce an anchored retail model.

Other more suburban sites, where the anchors are now gone but are close enough to an urban center that land values support other development, have the luxury to largely scrap the mall in favor of a town center development.

Town Center developments leverage the advantage of a single owner, who controls a parcel of land large enough to accommodate a reintroduced street grid, residential, office, and civic uses all with ground level retail to create new walkable town centers tied into larger neighborhoods. When done right, these types of developments are more appropriate to the scale of buildings in the neighborhood and, at the same time, can create a critical mass of services, retail, and entertainment that aspire to become civic places currently absent in so many American suburbs.

More successful malls sitting on high-value land are working to subdivide existing on-grade parking into residential, office and other mixed-use development. The result will be large malls surrounded by streets and sidewalks with underground parking, more closely resembling an urban setting. This is an exciting time for these types of malls where residential land values continue to rise, and no one is quite sure what the future holds for the next generation of shoppers.

The Rules of Anchor-less Mall Design

The mall is usually seen as quintessentially American, but it has been a powerful export over the last 30-40 years, particularly in the Middle East where the climate, geography and car-centric culture make a more traditional walkable “town center” retail destination less viable.

Although malls in places like Dubai may look like the American model in many respects, they are actually “leapfrogging” the US, moving away from traditional anchors and finding new ways of attracting shoppers. U.S. developers can draw on these innovations when rethinking the new anchor-less archetype. Developers in the Middle East are using the four following ideas to drive traffic in these anchor-less shopping environments.

The first rule of an anchor-less mall is the introduction of a circular pedestrian path (often called a racetrack). The idea is that instead of drawing people in a straight line toward an anchor, you allow people to stroll a mall in a circular path eventually leading back to where you started. The advantage of this type of circulation is that while it can benefit from well-placed destination brands, it is not reliant on them to draw people around the concourse.
The second rule of an anchor-less mall is the introduction of strong retail districting of “cross malls.” Retail districting is a retail concept as old as retail; it simply means that placing two similar tenants near each other is more likely to draw people looking for that offering. Ancient and modern spice markets, gold markets, and collections of similar goods sold by a multitude of small vendors are classic examples of the concept.
In modern parlance it generally means Value, Lifestyle, and Luxury shops should be collected together around a cross-mall or court. The goal and result are that a well-designed and branded collection of tenants can have the effect of a traditional U.S. anchor by supporting footfall from one district to another. The stronger the distinction of the three (or more) districts both architecturally and in terms of quality leasing mix, the more successfully people are moved through the mall.
The third rule is to rethink parking. It may not be the most exciting part of a mall, but parking can make all the difference to footfall and overall experience. Increasingly, we’re seeing developers load all structured parking on one side of the mall or below the mall (as opposed to surrounding a mall with fields of parking). Placing larger tenants on the opposite side of the mall is an easy way to drive cross traffic.
The fourth rule is to incorporate a must-see entertainment element. Larger-than-life mall plazas, culinary destinations, aquariums, ski slopes, ice skating rinks, and IMAX movie theaters give locals and tourists a reason to visit, both in the Middle East and in the U.S. Carefully considering where to place them can drive foot traffic, increase dwell time and, hopefully, enhance shopping bag value.

The Next Ten Years

With all that in mind, if a mall were built in the U.S. in the next 10 years, I would expect it to employ a tight racetrack circulation pattern with a high percentage of small shops and food & beverage experiences, along with a strong entertainment lineup. Parking would be entirely below the mall or structured on one side with a disproportionate importance placed on drop-off “front-doors” supporting the increasing use of ride-share and likely adoption of autonomous vehicles. Finally, I would expect there to be one or more hotels attached to the mall to support the story of this new mall being a base for regional tourism. I, for one, welcome any space where families and communities can gather in-person, away from screens.
The mall is not dead—it is about to become a whole lot more interesting.

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CallisonRTKL

For more than five decades, Callison and RTKL have created some of the world’s most memorable and successful environments for developers, retailers, investors, institutions and public entities. In 2015, our two practices came together under the Arcadis umbrella, expanding our sphere of influence and the depth and breadth of our resources. Our team is comprised of nearly 2,000 creative, innovative professionals throughout the world who are committed to advancing our client’s businesses and enhancing quality of life.