Downturn reveals importance of tenant mix

Mashpee Commons on Cape Cod “is weathering the storm very well,” Douglas Storrs says of the impact of the national economic downturn on one of nation’s longest-established new urban mixed-use centers. “It is interesting to note how well our independent merchants are doing during this period, with virtually all of their categories’ sales flat to up, while the nationals are having more difficulty,” says Storrs, who, with partner Buff Chace, started developing Mashpee Commons, in Mashpee, Massachusetts, in 1985.
The superior performance of independent merchants “is further affirmation of the need for new urbanist/traditional neighborhood development projects to diversify their tenant mix, something so many projects neglect,” says Storrs. “Yes, it takes more work (hand holding), but it benefits a downtown/town center in both an up market and a down market.”
In Providence, Rhode Island, where their firm, Cornish Associates, has converted neglected, old downtown buildings to apartments and other uses, “residential lease-up of the units is still strong, and the retail and restaurant spaces are (almost) full,” Storrs notes.
On the other hand, he says, “It is frustrating that we have viable projects ready to move forward — both renovations of some buildings and new buildings — but the credit squeeze that has hit our primary lender has limited our ability to move forward on some of these.” As a consequence, he reports, Cornish is “funding them purely from cash flow.”