NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—Suburban communities trying to cope with the challenges transforming their retail centers have to approach the problem differently than more typical urban centers that may already have the infrastructure in place to accommodate changing retail tastes, say panelists who participated in the “Adapting to the Retail Revolution” panel at this year's New Jersey Future Redevelopment Conference at the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick last week.

East Brunswick, for one, did a “SWOT” analysis of the community's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, says Mayor Brad Cohen.

“We, like most, want to attract our youth back to the township and we wa nt to create the kind of living spaces and communities that they are looking for,” he says, noting that he sees millennials as the trend-setters. Downtowns need an appropriate mix of housing and retail, says Cohen, with a combination of art and cultural activities as well.

A visit to the Viking Range store in an Atlantic City casino highlighted for Cohen the importance of “experiential” retail stores that hold events like cooking classes or contests, he says.

“I don't think it's going to be brick and mortar stores the way we grew up remembering brick and mortar stores to be,” he says. “It's taking all of the trends we've all been identifying and trying to put that into one nice picture that works best for your community.”

Attracting millennials to urban living has as much to do with the lifestyle of the city as it does with the amenities developers offer, says Deborah Tantleff, founding principal of Tantum Real Estate.

“Each town has the responsibility to themselves to create their own brand and figure out what it is about them that makes it an exciting place to live,” Tantleff says. “Municipalities are trying to urbanize suburbia, and how do we create that dynamic, urban-like environment and what's going to compel them to come to our towns to live, and what is going to allow the empty-nesters to stay in town after they decide to sell their house.”

Walkable living is attractive to many millennials, says Vanessa Imme, director of leasing and sales for Silverman, a millennial who lives in Jersey City.

“When I come home, I want to spend quality time with my family, I don't want to waste my time shopping, I don't want to go to the grocery store, I don't want to go to the mall,” she says. She shops for groceries and clothing online on Sunday nights after putting her young daughter to bed. In contrast, when she visits her parents in Morris County, “there's no live music in the restaurants, I find myself wondering what I'm going to do,” she says. “I'd rather pay a premium and have that quality of life with my daughter and my husband than to move out to the suburbs and kind of lose out on that.”

The marriage of technology with bricks and mortar retail is also having a significant impact on the kind of retail downtown business districts should be considering, says Tantleff. She points to Amazon's brick-and-mortar bookstores, which are much smaller and more focused that traditional bookstores, and stocked based on the online giant's vast knowledge about local purchasing preferences.

“Walking through an Amazon bookstore will tell you everything you need to know about how Amazon is changing products, technology, and the morph that's happened in retail,” she says.

Stores that engage with the community through author events, community activities and other experiences “have a shot,” at competing with online retailers, says Kevin Riordan, the Philadelphia Inquirer columnist who moderated t he panel.

New Jersey Future is a nonprofit organization promoting sensible growth, redevelopment, and infrastructure investments in New Jersey through research, policy development and coalition-building.