Retailers Redefine 'Anchor'

The presentation on the changing nature of anchors, titled "Anchors Anew," was part of a two-day ULI conference called "Reinvesting Retail: Community, Lifestyle, & Entertainment" that continues today. Panelist Blake Cordish of the Baltimore, MD-based Cordish Co. suggested just how different anchors can be today when he described a 500-seat alligator wrestling arena that is one of the attractions at the retail portion of the company's Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, FL.

The alligator arena alone isn't what draws customers to the combination retail and entertainment venue, Cordish explained, but he listed it as one of many attractions, including a 7,000-seat arena for live performances, that is part of the same development. In other developments, he said, the company has included sports venues, outlet shops and many other nontraditional uses that Cordish called "complementary" because "they drive traffic." Cordish and the other panelists argued that "a sense of place" is more important than any specific anchor, with Cordish using the example of famous places like Bourbon Street in New Orleans to make his point.

Bourbon Street is "basically unanchored," but has such a sense of place that it is a big draw, Cordish said, adding, "That's how pure entertainment should work." One way that his company is providing entertainment to draw shoppers is by providing free, live concerts. He cited one center that has a budget of $4.5 million a year for such concerts, an amount that the center itself could never afford, but the center has signed corporate sponsors to foot the bill for the performances, which draw huge crowds to the center.

On the other hand, he said, shopping centers can maintain a strong retail draw without department stores, thanks to the growing popularity of brand names among shoppers. Today's shoppers will visit a location in order to shop at a Banana Republic, a Williams-Sonoma or any number of other popular retailers, he explained, so the trick for retail developers is to attract a mix of such retailers that will appeal to shoppers.

Panelist Barry Rosenberg, president of Columbus, OH-based Steiner and Associates Inc., added that the growing popularity of certain chains is producing "strong retail brands that are becoming anchors" in and of themselves. Large destination type stores, like Outdoor World and Bass Pro Shops, can also serve as anchors, although they're generally better suited to suburban locations because of their space requirements, Rosenberg said.

Even office buildings can function as anchors, noted panelist Thomas Maskey, SVP of retail for Fairfax, VA-based The Peterson Cos., who cited one of the company's centers that relied on a 200,000-sf office building as its centerpiece. The office building provides a ready customer base for restaurants in the center on weekdays, Maskey said, and although the office building is quiet on weekends, the restaurants tend to attract customers on their own on the weekend days.

As he and the other panelists pointed out, the emergence of restaurant rows, theaters and other entertainment venues, sports facilities, home furnishings centers, bookstores, large-format, off-price stores and other attractions are picking up where department stores left off. Other sessions at the ULI conference yesterday and today focused on reaching urban consumers, new types of theater developments, retail projects developing around transit stations, gaming and resort retail and a number of other new trends.