Shopping malls have been in a precarious position lately with trying to find new tenants for vacated big-box brands and having to adapt to the new reality of social distancing mandates. As a result, some interesting trends have been popping up recently, including creative big-box utilization and innovative contactless food pickup techniques. Look for gambling tenants, ghost kitchen configurations and even creative movie-going experiences to potentially be the next hot mall trends in the future.
Taking a Gamble on Casinos
More and more malls have been buzzing about opening casinos in place of vacant big-box spaces. CBL Properties appears to have started the trend when the two-floor, 129,552-s.f. Live! Casino Pittsburgh, developed by The Cordish Companies, opened last November in the former Bon-Ton space within the Westmoreland mall in Hempfield Township, Pa. Although a mall-adjacent Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland has been situated next to Arundel Mills mall in Hanover, Md., since 2012, this casino takes up space directly at the mall’s anchor spot. Most of the casino’s ground level is for customers aged 21 and older and features 750 slots machines plus 30 live-action tables. The ground floor will also house Guy Fieri’s American Kitchen + Bar, expected to open by mid- to late 2021. The second floor contains the 445-seat sports bar/restaurant called Sports & Social Steel City, which features a bowling alley, basketball hoops, shuffleboard, ping-pong tables, darts and a golf simulator. The second level also houses PBR Pittsburgh, a country western bar complete with a mechanical bull.
Another CBL Properties-owned mall that will get a casino this year is the York Galleria mall in York, Pa., which expects to open the 80,000-s.f. Hollywood Casino York, developed by Penn National Gaming, in mid-2021 in the former Sears space. In addition, the Newburgh Mall in Gardnertown, N.Y., owned by the Namdar Realty Group, is expected to open a Resorts World Catskills gaming hall in the 68,877-s.f. space that currently houses Jennifer Furniture. After city approval is finalized — which should occur by mid-2021 — Resorts World Catskills hopes open by mid- to late 2022 and anticipates boosting both the foot traffic and increased tenancy for the mall.
Ghost Kitchen Technology
Ghost kitchen brand Kitchen United will be installing its first mall-based infrastructure service, called Kitchen United Mix, for the food court within the Unibail Rodamco Westfield’s Valley Fair mall in Santa Clara, Calif. Customers order their food on the Kitchen United website or its app, and can then retrieve their orders at smart lockers in the mall, through drive-thru pickup or via home delivery. The Kitchen United staff places the completed food orders on a conveyer belt that transports the items from the second floor food court to the delivery pickup area on the first level.
Around 11 food tenants at the mall have signed up to be a part of United Kitchen Mix, including Loving Hut Vegan Cuisine, KoJa Kitchen, Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, Häagen-Dazs, Cinnabon and Mrs. Fields. United Kitchen is hopeful that the format will appear in additional malls in the future.
Drive-In Parking Garage Movies
On Feb. 12, the PREIT-owned Exton Square mall in Exton, Pa., anchored by a Macy’s, premiered its drive-in movie experience, courtesy of Parking Lot Theaters. The charge is $32 a car to park on the second level of the mall’s parking garage, where movies will be shown every Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening. There is also an option to buy concessions through an app for direct-to-car delivery. The drive-in movies will continue until Dec. 26. Look for more malls to also jump aboard this safe, social distancing movie-going trend in an effort to support the food tenants and bring traffic to the property.
