The latest shopping mall mixed-use redevelopment trends incorporate adding a new outdoor-oriented main street element with a town square feature, without actually making changes to the existing indoor mall itself. Instead, the redevelopment will occur on the outside periphery areas of the mall, usually by converting a large parking lot. On opposite ends of the country, both the Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco, owned by Brookfield Properties, and the Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J., owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) are embarking on similar mixed-use redevelopment plans that will ultimately, over a span of 10 to 15 years, incorporate apartments, offices, retail and restaurants in a mall-adjacent, pedestrian-oriented outdoor space. Providing a built-in live-work-play customer base is expected be a safe bet for mall owners to overcome any future economic or health crisis issues that can potentially impact the area’s viability.
Stonestown Galleria
The Stonestown Galleria, an indoor mall located next to the San Francisco State University campus, is awaiting final city approval for its proposed mixed-use redevelopment plans that is expected to break ground in 2024 and take 15 years to complete. On the docket are creating 13 residential buildings that would provide 2,930 units.
These buildings would vary in height: the tallest would be 18 stories, and the smallest would be three stories. Some of the residences would be on the outer ends of the mall property, with units available as both rentals and for sale, and a portion of them will be reserved for senior housing, workforce housing and affordable housing.
Near the front entrance of the Stonestown Galleria, there would be a revamped walkable “main street” that would cater to pedestrians and offer wide sidewalks and bicycle lanes. One side of the main street will consist of restaurants with outdoor seating, and on the other side there would be mixed-use buildings with housing on the upper level, and smaller sized neighborhood retail businesses and office tenants on the ground-floor level. Up to 160,000 s.f. of the space will be for retail, and about 200,000 s.f. of the space will be for local office business, such as architecture firms. To provide a new outdoor green space section that would double as a town square gathering site, Brookfield Properties proposed reconstructing the mall’s six-acre backside parking lot into a new multiuse greenway area. The open space would be the new site for the weekly farmers’ market and would also offer a children’s playground, as well as a dog park. New parking will either be built underground or encased in the surrounding buildings.
Although the future of the Stonestown Galleria was put in jeopardy when both Macy’s and Nordstrom vacated over the span of the last five years, new tenants have since moved in that have revitalized the mall, such as Whole Foods Market, the California-based Sports Basement, Regal Cinemas, Ike’s Love & Sandwiches and Shake Shack. Other high-traffic retailers in the mall include Apple Store, Trader Joe’s, Target, Sephora and Zara.
Westfield Garden State Plaza
The Westfield Garden State Plaza expects to break ground next year for its 10-year plan to complete a mixed-use redevelopment, which will entail the building of 550 new luxury apartment units. Mill Creek Residential Trust, based in Boca Raton, Fla., will act as co-developers for this project. The majority of these units will be geared toward young professionals, while a separate building housing 150 units will cater more to the Gen X/baby boomer-aged empty nesters.
The mall’s parking lot area will become the space to house these new residential buildings, which will be connected to the mall via a one-acre “town green” section. New parking will be provided in an underground lot.
The town green portion will have an outdoor main street element featuring about 45,000 s.f. of retail. Tenants will include restaurants and fashionable apparel shops, as well as other service-oriented retailers such as convenience stores, health/wellness brands and fitness centers. The green area will also contain gardens and parks, as well as the restored Sprout Brook — a tributary of the Saddle River. The green area will also be utilized for mall-sponsored town center-like community event activities such as festivals and concerts. A new transit center will also be built on the premises for ease of commuting, and electric charging stations will be installed. Future growth on the premises may include additional medical and office buildings, though it is still undetermined at this time.
Westfield Garden State Plaza is expecting that the live-work-play additions will help its mall hold its own against the URW’s entertainment-oriented American Dream mall that is located about 10 miles away. The indoor mall, with anchors such as Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, AMC Theatres and Nordstrom, as well as unique entertainment- type retailers, such as CAMP, has continuous newsworthy tenancy updates, such as its December opening of a renovated Gucci store and its February opening of Fogo De Chao, the restaurant chain’s first unit in New Jersey.
