Towne Mall to see new lifestyle
June 11, 2006
By JOSEPH M. DELEON News-Post Staff
jdeleon @ fredericknewspost . com
FREDERICK — Meager shopping choices, flooding and crime are to blame for the decline of the Frederick Towne Mall, mall vendors said. Most shops are empty, except for employees. About 15 people roamed the mall at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Turquoise Stroman, an associate of Chanticleer Shoes, has seen the Frederick Towne Mall deteriorate.
She said at least three fights have broken out at the mall this year.
"I mean, I'm black, and even I think it's getting ghetto around here," she said.
Sales are so slow, she looks forward to the fights to chase away the boredom.
Crime analyst Bill Douwes of the Frederick Police Department said the neighborhood north of the Golden Mile has seen an increase in violent crimes over the past two years, but the Golden Mile corridor has a relatively low number of offenses, the most common being thefts.
"In the last two years, we have seen a decline in our calls for service, but in (the area north of the Golden Mile) calls have increased by 12 percent," he said. "That's a lot."
Ronetta Wixson, manager of Fashion Bug Plus, said her store is fortunate to have a strong customer base. Many of her clients still come in spite of the dwindling interest in the mall.
"It used to be real busy on the weekends, but not anymore," she said.
Ms. Wixson and Fashion Bug Plus associate Sharon Morgan, who has worked at the mall since 1997, said it seems more like a flea market on the weekends.
Ms. Morgan has noticed more teenagers and Hispanics gather in the mall on weekends and suspects her regular customers are uncomfortable around that crowd.
"I've gotten to know my customers, but have also watched fewer of them come back," Ms. Morgan said. "That clientele does not shop here."
Ms. Wixson said most people prefer the Francis Scott Key Mall.
"I would rather take a beating than fight traffic out at FSK," she said.
Claude Mullinix and his wife Melinda opened The Candle Shop in 2001 at Frederick Towne Mall. They got a good deal on rent and liked not having to fight traffic.
Mr. Mullinix said an ethnically diverse clientele is not the problem. It's the quality of stores.
"It doesn't matter what ethnicity you are, you're going to shop according to what there is," he said.
Mr. Mullinix said the mall is lacking improvements.
"When you go down the mall and see a 66 cent and $4 store, you know it's pretty bad," he said.
Donna Kurtz, an associate at Chanticleer Shoes, said several stores have closed because of problems with mold.
"Right across the hall, we used to have Gentleman's Choice (hair salon), but they're gone now," she said.
Ms. Kurtz said whenever Carroll Creek flooded, the salon would get mold in its cabinets.
"They finally got tired of dealing with that and closed up," she said.
Changes forthcoming
Developer Fredericktowne Mall Associates LLC hopes to revitalize the Golden Mile stretch of U.S. 40 with a major renovation, in its early stages of planning, according to a statement released Friday from Tom Bradley, manager of Frederick Towne Mall.
"We wish to assure existing and potential new tenants, as well as the community, that information regarding this exciting redevelopment project will be shared at appropriate times in the future," the release states.
Mr. Bradley refused to comment further.
The change to mixed-use zoning for the Frederick Towne Mall last year opened the door to the hottest trend in retail real estate — the lifestyle center. The center becomes an activity-based destination, not just a place to shop.
Fredericktowne Mall Associates LLC has submitted plans for the mall, including a residential center and a two-story parking deck. Mr. Bradley's release states any initial plans are likely to change over the course of development.
According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, a lifestyle center usually has an open-air configuration, often incorporates upscale residences and serves as a multipurpose leisure destination.
The open-air main street configuration cuts overhead expense and encourages a main street feel, said senior project manager Drew Romanic of The Martin Architectural Group in Philadelphia.
"They want it to become a downtown atmosphere, a place where things happen," he said.
Those things range from art classes to street musicians.
The Martin Architectural Group redesigned the Hunt Valley Towne Centre north of Baltimore. Big-box stores that anchored the mall remained, while the middle strip was razed. The project took more than two years to complete.
The center was 100 percent occupied before it opened last summer, with stores such as the California Pizza Kitchen, Filene's Basement and Jos. A. Bank Clothier.
The group is now developing the $400 million Annapolis Towne Center at Parole. The center will feature more than 1 million square feet of high-rise living space, as well as 90,000 square feet of hotel space.
The center replaces Parole Plaza, which failed in the 1990s and lay vacant for a decade. It was leveled to make way for the new center.
The new lifestyle center would require an innovative approach to policing, said Frederick Police Chief Kim C. Dine.
The new trend in fighting crime combines architecture and public safety. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, or CPTED, relies on cameras, lighting and cleverly designed walkways, public spaces and entrances.
Chief Dine said lighting, cameras and signs should play a big role in the new development.
"Here's a chance to incorporate CPTED into the architecture of the new mall," he said. "Prevention is a big part of policing, it's not just arresting people."
Mall rats
While living in a mall might seem like an odd concept to some, developers believe including living quarters in lifestyle centers helps drive activity 24 hours a day.
"Lifestyle centers should mimic the urban setting without all the grit," Mr. Romanic said. "You don't have potholes or panhandlers, except for retailers who are always after your money."
People drawn to live in lifestyle centers are usually young professionals and empty-nesters, Mr. Romanic said.
Entrances to living areas are kept away from the shopping corridor, but Mr. Romanic said people who do not want diversity and activity will not stay.
"It's almost like residents are living in a mall. Every time you go outside there are 100,000 people," he said.
Mr. Romanic said another advantage is that lifestyle centers can actually reduce traffic. Urban sprawl forces residents to travel longer distances; they spend more time in their car and tend to visit multiple destinations.
"Lifestyle centers are trying to fill the void caused by urban sprawl by bringing different components to create a central hub," Mr. Romanic said.
The goal is to provide everything a resident needs, including a wide price range of dining, shopping and leisure activities, he said. Some centers even incorporate community centers, municipal offices and police substations.
The variety encourages residents to walk to the center.
Another reason people are becoming more interested in the lifestyle centers is that the architecture of traditional malls turns people off, he said. Parking lots make things even worse, as patrons must navigate an ocean of parked cars to get to stores.
"It's a very isolated way to approach the shopping experience," Mr. Romanic said.
While lifestyle centers usually have a movie theater and bookstore, leisure pursuits go beyond the ordinary.
Fitness-related components are wildly successful, Mr. Romanic said. The proposed bike trail at the Frederick Towne Mall is another example. A sport climbing wall is a common fixture in many centers, such as the 45-foot wall at Town Center Commons in Kennesaw, Ga.
"What they are doing is weaving a fabric of activity in hopes you will stay longer and spend more money," Mr. Romanic said.
International Council of Shopping Centers studies suggest lifestyle center shoppers spend as much as 50 percent more per visit than at traditional malls. Shoppers also tend to visit more often, as many as six times per month, and stay longer.
The study found the average lifestyle center patron spent about $84 per hour while shoppers at regional centers spent about $58 per hour.
Fall and rise
The Frederick Towne Mall began to decline when Francis Scott Key Mall opened less than three miles away in 1978, according to a 2003 retail market analysis by H. Blount Hunter, a retail and real estate research firm.
Richard Griffin, director of economic development for Frederick, explained the factors that led to the decline of the mall.
"JC Penney chose to put their flagship store at FSK and then closed at the Frederick Towne Mall," he said.
A spate of nationwide bankruptcies in the 1990s made matters worse for the aging mall.
"With the loss of major anchor stores, you can imagine the effect on small retailers," Mr. Griffin said.
The result was vacancy rates at Frederick Towne Mall as high as 40 percent.
Mr. Griffin organized the Golden Mile Task Force to encourage owners and government officials to devise a solution. That led to a five-year tax credit program starting in 2003 that attracted such companies as Home Depot and Boscov's to the Golden Mile. The city will begin getting full tax revenue from the companies in 2008.
The credit contributed to more than $20 million in capital investments along the Golden Mile, Mr. Griffin said. He expects the redevelopment of the Frederick Towne Mall to encourage off-site development.
"The idea is to restructure the mall to have retail face (U.S. 40) and do mixed-use after they remove the back end of the mall," Mr. Griffin said. "By intent, they will limit the number of tenants."
Barriers
One problem is that commercial development on the Golden Mile is limited by rolling topography and residential subdivisions. Businesses that want to set up shop can only do so within one block north or south of the road.
Another barrier to developers is financing. Bankers are often hesitant about funding mixed-use properties, Mr. Romanic said.
"They understand retail. They understand residential. They understand commercial. But they don't understand these mixed uses," he said.
Every piece of the development must make sense to lenders and investors for the project to work.
Mr. Romanic said it takes big money to develop a lifestyle center because so much has to be ready at the same time. Lifestyle centers do not favor traditional phase-based development.
"It has to have a life and activity from the beginning," he said.
That could be a problem for developers who expect a quick fix for the Frederick Towne Mall. The redevelopment of lifestyle centers typically take about three years.
"This isn't just a real estate deal where you flip it to go on to the next thing," he said. "If you started today, you'll be lucky to see something happen by 2010."
Environmental concerns are the biggest variable because they are often undefined until construction starts, he said. Lifestyle center projects can be complicated by the existing structure of the former mall.
"It's a common perception to think there is an octopus in every wall," Mr. Romanic said. "It's usually better to start off with a clean slate. When you work around something existing, it's tricky."
Chuck Boyd, director of planning for Frederick does not agree the Frederick Towne Mall has declined, but he acknowledges the mall has changed.
"They don't seem to have been able to attract higher-end line stores between the anchors, so they have had to resort to a tenant that desires a lower dollar-per-square-foot rent," he said.
Mr. Boyd said one big obstacle is the occasional flooding of Carroll Creek. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's revision of maps in 2005 put parts of Frederick Towne Mall in the 100-year flood plain, making it tough for builders.
Mr. Boyd said the planning department will expedite a review of the area to avoid hindering the Frederick Towne Mall development. He said the reviews include an inventory of properties the city controls to see if it can be a part of the solution.
"It will take some time to put together a strategy, but by no means will it be as complex or capital intensive as the downtown Carroll Creek project," Mr. Boyd said. .
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