COSTA MESA, CA—Creating “outdoor living rooms” for customers to gather, relax, shop, dine, be entertained and much more is the main idea behind modern retail centers that are far from boxed in in any way, Nadel Architects owner and design director Greg Lyon tells GlobeSt.com.

Orange County, for one, from the OC Mix to the Anaheim Packing District to Union Market, has experienced a shift toward the culinary experience. This trend is certainly not exclusive to OC since food-centric destinations are exceling across the country, from New York's Chelsea Market to L.A.'s new Eataly, and it is due, in part, to the additional discretionary income consumers have to spend since the end of the recession. There's also something to be said for the role played by today's “foodie” culture, perpetuated by Instagram, Yelp and more.

The common theme in all of these destinations is the environment is truly the anchor. More so than any one restaurant or retailer, shoppers and diners are drawn to these locations for the environments themselves. One such project the firm is working on is The Trails in Silverdale, WA, a new, 200,000-square-foot retail complex developed by CenterCal Properties LLC offering culinary, boutique and entertainment experiences.

Next planned in the line of foodie destinations in Orange County is the Shops at Mesa Verde here, designed by Nadel. The center is designed to hold multiple sit-down and quick-service restaurants connected by patios and outdoor amenities. Another project the firm is working on is

We spoke with Lyon about these projects and about environments becoming the new retail anchor.

GlobeSt.com: How are environments are becoming retail's new anchor?

Lyon: With the challenges that online shopping presents, customers have the choice to shop online or go out and shop, so creating an environment that's attractive to them is creating an anchor for the center. We want to create an outdoor living room for the community, with the furnishings, free Wi-Fi and entertainment-enhanced environments, whether it's fire pits or water features. This presents an opportunity to attract people. We're in the business of creating retail dining and entertainment destinations. These environments will create an outdoor living room for the community.

GlobeSt.com: What will the Shops at Mesa Verde offer customers that other retail centers don't?

Lyon: What we're doing is creating a building that's a multi-use. Unlike Anaheim Packing House with its interior space that creates a market dining experience, this project will create online dining offerings with great outdoor amenities for diners. It will be unusual: a culinary-centric building with a series of food uses and common-area amenities designed to enhance that dining experience. It is designed specifically for certain dining uses such as people who want their private outdoor space to serve alcohol, for example. It will be designed to create a multi-use culinary tenant experience combined with an outdoor dining experience.

GlobeSt.com: What will the next permutation in the evolution of food and dining look like?

Lyon: The recession started America's and the younger generation's affair with culinary experiences. It started with the food-truck culture, where everyone was interested in all new foods from different countries and cultures, and that changed the way that diners looked for culinary experiences in the U.S. That trend of Americans spending more and more of their discretionary income on culinary experiences will continue to grow, and projects like Eataly, the OC Mix and the Shops at Mesa Verde are designed specifically for food tenants. What that will be is for the great chefs and people in that industry to determine. Just look at Shake Shack and Mod Pizza.

GlobeSt.com: What other voids need to be filled using retail environments?

Lyon: People are always going to need to go out and have a place to hang out. People will want to get together with other people and have experiences. We need to stay open to all different uses in retail dining and entertainment: hospitality; medical uses, including urgent care and outpatient facilities; wellness centers with juice bars, fitness and leisurewear (think Lululemon). We need to remain cognizant of and not be close-minded to all of the blends coming into this environment: office, creative office, multifamily, educational, medical—it's not just traditional retail; it can be anything that will attract people so they will stay longer and return more often, creating and more daytime and evening traffic.

Instant Insights /

Environments Are Becoming the New Retail Anchor

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