Mall Housing, Part II

From PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:

In my previous post, I highlighted the creative, albeit illegal, construction of a hidden apartment inside the Providence Place mall.

But in an interesting twist, the typical commercial-only mall is now being viewed by at least some developers and local officials as out-of-date. They want to add housing into the mix!

New Urban News, in its June 2007 issue, notes that: "General Growth Properties, the nation’s second-largest owner of shopping malls, has decided to start redeveloping its more than 200 properties by adding housing, offices, hotels, and other elements ... Thomas D’Alesandro IV, senior vice president of the Chicago-based company, told a session at CNU in Philadelphia that he foresees 'the reinvention of existing malls into mixed-use centers.' ...”

You can read about a growing number of older malls being torn down (or rehabbed) and replaced by (or reconfigured as) mixed use centers, where one of the key elements is housing.

There are literally hundreds of "dead malls" across America; just browse through the listings of dead or dying malls on DeadMall.com.

More and more of these relics are giving way to new mixed-use centers.

On Labelscar: The Retail History Blog, you can read about potential new life for the down-on-its-heels Eastland Malls in Charlotte, North Carolina. The blog posting includes a candid quote from Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory that “We built crap. We built pure crap. I call it corridors of crap ... and we’re paying for it now.” (As reported in a WCNC-TV news story, "Redeveloping a 'Corridor of Crap").

In Holladay, Utah, the old Cottonwood Mall is being torn down, to be replaced by a mixed use project.

As the Salt Lake Tribune reported on May 23: "Utah's first indoor shopping mall sprouted here almost 50 years ago. Now, Cottonwood Mall owner General Growth Properties hopes to replace the aging icon with a new retail model and a revived community hangout. On Thursday, the company -- with the help of Holladay Mayor Dennis Webb steering a bulldozer -- broke ground on its 57-acre, $550 million project. In place of the long, rectangular, peach-brick mall, General Growth envisions: a mixed-use village with 500 homes, 195,000 square feet of offices and 575,000 square feet of shops -- about 150,000 square feet less retail space than the old mall."

In Deschutes County, Oregon, "SilverStar Destinations LLC, wants to replace [the Sunriver Village Mall] with The Village at Sunriver, a mix of condominiums, retail space and other amenities that developers hope would transform the space into a “vibrant town center,” SilverStar principal John Goodman says." From the Bend Bulletin (April 28, 2008).

One of the challenges facing the transformation of malls into mixed uses centers is zoning. Local codes in many cities and towns have long been built on the segregation of different land uses from each other. Malls have been built in areas that typically only allow for commercial uses. But public attitudes, and the views of developers, are changing.

Housing at the mall. Perhaps not such a strange idea after all.