Featured in the picture is The Glades, a redesigned mall located in Boca Raton, FL by RDC.
In recent years, shopping malls have been a topic of discussion as either dying or being revitalized. Connect CRE sat down with Sean Slater, Senior Principal at RDC and architect for The Glades redevelopment project, to discuss the importance of considering community engagement when revamping malls.
Connect CRE: You’ve emphasized the significance of involving the community when redeveloping malls. Can you elaborate on that?
Sean Slater: To understand this concept better, let’s take a look at some history. In the 1960s through 1980s there was an increase in mall development due to various factors such as tax laws that allowed for faster depreciation schedules for new constructions. As soon as new freeways or housing projects were built, developers would construct a mall and then move on to another location once it had depreciated enough value.
This led to issues like white flight and failing malls in inner-city areas which eventually resulted in complete divestment from original developers. These “dead” or “dying” malls created gaps within communities undergoing demographic changes and limited their ability to use these spaces for social purposes like housing developments or public service facilities such as libraries and schools.
However, we believe that by engaging directly with these diverse communities surrounding these sites can lead to significant transformations.
Connect CRE: How does this approach work?
Sean Slater : We suggest utilizing public infrastructure around these sites along with their edges where they meet residential neighborhoods instead of just focusing on former parking lots where suburban multifamily housing is typically placed during redevelopment plans.This way we can create vibrant urban experiences right at street level while slowly erasing any memories associated with traditional suburban-style shopping centers.We believe this will allow communities evolve organically while occupying these spaces according demographics resulting into long-lasting relationships between them .
Connect CRE: Does your strategy apply equally well indoor and outdoor malls?
Sean Slater : No, every mall is different and not all have the same potential for community engagement. Some may evolve into light industrial or logistics spaces while others could be used for server farms or other purposes instead of housing developments and smaller retail spaces. RDC has studied over 250 malls to understand their unique characteristics such as ring roads that isolate them from surrounding communities. We found that about half of these sites are suitable for a more sensitive redevelopment approach like the one we’ve described here but almost half require a deeper evaluation to determine their highest and best use.
Connect CRE: What’s the main takeaway from this discussion?
Sean Slater : There’s always room for improvement when it comes to revitalizing malls. Developers initially built these shopping centers in booming new communities, however as those areas evolved, they became more of a hindrance than an asset.This is why instead of replicating traditional “anywhere-ness” with generic housing developments, we suggest studying growth patterns around these sites so that eventually there are no visible boundaries between them resulting in seamless integration within neighborhoods .
