Mall industry joins greyfield study

CNU recently held a landmark meeting with officials from the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). It was the first time that the mall industry has met with advocates and developers over the growing issue of failing shopping centers, known as greyfields. The meeting was organized by CNU members Will Fleissig and Mark Falcone of Continuum Partners, Victor Dover of Dover Kohl Associates, and CNU staff Shelley Poticha and Ellen Greenberg. CNU is conducting a long-term greyfield mall study. It is the first in-depth look at how to redevelop greyfields into enduring community assets. The meeting showed the ICSC CNU's goal of high-quality, long-lasting redevelopment. Some major mall owners and investors became quite interested in CNU's ideas, and are now taking the initiative to find out about redeveloping regional malls into mixed-use neighborhoods that could include housing, employment centers, and recreation alongside retail. The meeting also allowed CNU to address ICSC's serious concerns about the study's methodology and use. ICSC feared that the study would suggest that publicly traded companies own underperforming properties — without adequate data to back up the assertions. ICSC repeatedly asked CNU not to publicize the economic findings of the study. The problem is that the industry and ICSC, its trade group, do not keep full, audited data on mall performance. There are only partial, self-reported data on most of the key indicators of mall performance, such as sales per square foot. Because CNU's preliminary study relies heavily on such data sets, we have re-examined which specific assertions can be accurately reported. Preliminary findings, which show how to identify greyfield malls, and some possible redevelopment strategies, are available now from the CNU web site at www.cnu.org/greyfields.