The firm's Tod Heller describes Tice's Corner as "an anchorless lifestyle center that relies on diversity of products and services, as well as shopping convenience, to attract shoppers." He describes the center's target audience as "two-income professional families who are unable or unwilling to spend a lot of time on shopping. With this type of project, the overall retail experience is designed to be more intimate, interesting and aesthetically pleasing."

Tice's Corner, which has a total of 25 store units and a restaurant site ranging from 2,000 sf to 11,000 sf, opened up fully leased. Among those on the upscale tenant roster are The Gap, J. Crew, Eddie Bauer, Banana Republic, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works and Anthropologie.

The shopping center replaces a century-old farm and farmstand in this affluent Bergen County community. The farm operation had shut its door approximately three years ago, and Starwood-Heller acquired the property for development purposes.

The shopping center's design "adopts a sophisticated pedestrian orientation and a scale that are both well adapted to affluent suburban locations," explains Keith A. Michels, Starwood-Heller's vice president of architecture. "The one-story buildings are only a little taller than the surrounding residential and commercial structures."

The developers also acquired six acres of the former farm that lie across the road from the shopping center, according to Heller. A 10,000-sf day care center has been developed for Kindercare on three of those acres, while the rest of the site has been sold to Sunrise Assisted Living for an 85-unit facility. Both are already up and running.

Starwood-Heller is a joint venture that combines a commercial real estate developer with a commingled real estate investment fund with more than $1.5 billion in assets. The venture is currently pursuing new development opportunities in the New Jersey/New York metro market. It currently has active retail, office and residential projects in such New Jersey communities as Edgewater, Ocean Twp., Lyndhurst, Brick Twp., East Hanover and Hoboken.

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