CNU sponsors mall study

According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, approximately 43,000 shopping centers and 1,800 enclosed malls operate in the U.S. Finding prognostications about how many of these are in trouble is not difficult. Ten years ago American Demographics predicted that 20 percent of regional shopping centers would close by 2000 and a similar forecast of a 15-20 percent failure rate in the first decade in the 21st century appeared in Planning and Metropolis magazines in 1999. Confirming such predictions is much more difficult. That’s one reason CNU is sponsoring a study to do an inventory of failing or under-performing malls. The study is co-managed by Harvard University and PricewaterhouseCoopers and funded by the Surdna Foundation of New York City. Mark Falcone and Will Fleissig of Continuum Partners and Todd Zimmerman of Zimmerman-Volk Associates cochair the study. Falcone says the study’s primary focus is enclosed malls 300,000 square feet or greater in size. He adds that the study will include feasibility analyses that try to quantify the fiscal implications of an under-performing asset to a community and the amount of greenfield space that can be spared by reusing mall sites. “In the final stage, the intent is to deliver a set of legislative proposals on the federal, and perhaps the local level, which could help accelerate the conversion of these assets into higher density, pedestrian-scale, mixed-use neighborhoods,” Falcone says. u