Kiosk culture is thriving at the malls

You've every intention of hitting up that Nordstrom sale at the mall but are sidetracked by cute yoga pants and a little black slip dress that both shapes and contours. But the clothes aren't in a store — they're hanging on a cart outside the stores.

Welcome to Maidenform's Shaper Shop kiosk, just one of the many mini-stores dotting the mall's interior. And the expanding kiosk market now includes everything from shapewear to $20 sheets, sunglasses to language-learning software and Crocs to socks.

Born in Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace in 1976, the kiosk concept has grown into a $12 billion specialty retail industry, said Poornima Apte, editor in chief of Specialty Retail Report. And IBISWorld research indicates that sales from kiosks increased from $975.9 million in 2006 to an estimated $2.07 billion in 2011, according to analyst Janet Shim.

Apte said the kiosks can provide an entrepreneur a way to test new retail concepts. "It can be temporary, doesn't require too much capital investment, and merchandise can be rotated quickly and effectively."

What’s next

The top five kiosk concepts for 2011, according to Specialty Retail Report:
1. Portable device accessories
2. Service delivery (i.e., threading stations)
3. DIY concepts (i.e., beading stations)
4. Electronic cigarettes
5. New takes on toys and plush

"This format pulls the products together in a focused way," said Lisa McClelland, vice president of retail for Maidenform. "Retail has evolved as to how the customer shops and this allows us to easily change inventory or location."

An art and a science, the placement of a kiosk is a delicate balance of maximizing a vendor's visibility and minimizing disruption to store-based retailers.

"Because mall kiosks are merchandised beautifully, they attract consumers to come check them out," Apte said. Demonstration concepts like toy helicopters also cater to customers' attention spans. "Many of the products sold through this market have a price point that makes them especially attractive as impulse buys."BY ELLEN WILKOWE

From: NJ Shopping.com: Kiosks a Thriving Business

Boynton Beach Mall for sale

Simon Property Group has placed the Boynton Beach Mall on the chopping block, making it the second mall in Palm Beach County to be listed in less than two years.

The Palm Beach Post notes that the 26-year-old mall, on the west side of Congress Avenue, was bustling until new stores grew around it in recent years. What was once cow pasture on the east side of Congress Avenue is now homes, restaurants and stores including SuperTarget and Best Buy.

Real estate experts told the Post that the mall site could be redeveloped into medical offices or a senior living facility. The property includes 83 acres between Gateway and Boynton Beach boulevards.
There is no purchase price attached to the site, which faces challenges due to the fact that there are multiple owners.

In addition to Simon Property Group, retailers including Macy’s are also owners.
Indianapolis-based Simon closed the Palm Beach Mall in 2010.

Read more: Boynton Beach Mall for sale | South Florida Business Journal

Louis Vuitton moving to Aventura

Louis Vuitton is leaving the Bal Harbour Shops when its lease expires at the end of June, and opening up at Aventura Mall on July 1st.

The French luxury label will take temporary space there until it opens a larger store “adhering in design to the Maison’s very latest global store concept,” which the company said is scheduled to open in fall 2012.

“We are delighted to be bringing our Miami home to Aventura,” said Geoffroy Van Raemdonck, president of Louis Vuitton North America, in a news release. “Louis Vuitton has been an established presence in the region for several decades, and we felt it was time we were able to respond to the evolving needs of our customers by offering them a significantly enhanced environment.”

The temporary Aventura Mall location will feature a space dedicated to a rotation of work by renowned artists.
Louis Vuitton has six other South Florida locations, as well as stores in Naples, Tampa and Jacksonville.
The company also has plans to open a new store in the Miami Design District, according to several published reports.

Read more: Louis Vuitton moving to Aventura | South Florida Business Journal

Hispanic Supermarket Sabor Expanding

President Supermarket is out, and Sabor Tropical Supermarket is moving in at Miami’s Biscayne Plaza.

The Hispanic supermarket chain, which has four other stores, has signed a 20-year lease for 24,000 square feet at the Biscayne Plaza Shopping Center. The deal is valued at $2.4 million.

 

Another store, at 5011 Broadway in West Palm Beach, is undergoing renovations, according to owner Rafael Castro.

As part of the deal, Sabor Tropical has to renovate the interior no later than January 2012, according to a news release from Terranova Corp., whose Executive VP Mindy McIlroy brokered the deal.

The store is open, and renovations will take place in the evenings while the store is closed.

Castro said he opened his first store four years ago and has been expanding with new ones. He said there’s a lot of work to be done at his newest location, but he’s planning to do it “little by little.”

There will be a seamless transition between President and Sabor Tropical, so there will be no impact to the community,” McIlroy said in a news release. “This is the first step in the right direction for the redevelopment of this community shopping center.”

By: Susan R. Miller

From: Sabor Tropical adds Biscayne Plaza store | South Florida Business Journal

Terranova group buys slice of Lincoln Road

Terranova Corp., in a joint venture with Acadia Realty Trust (NYSE: AKR), has snapped up three buildings along Lincoln Road for $52 million.

The seller was an entity controlled by developer Craig Robins.

The 61,000-square-foot slice of Miami Beach’s most popular shopping and entertainment strip include tenants such as Starbucks Coffee, Geox Shoes, and restaurants Sushi Samba Dromo and Tacontento. There is also 12,000 square feet of offices available for lease above the restaurants, for those who want to people-watch while they work. Miami-Beach-based Terranova will oversee leasing and management.

Lincoln Road, which spans eight blocks between Alton Road and Washington Avenue, is the priciest retail district in South Florida. With average rents of $140 a square foot, it far outpaces rents along Palm Beach’s posh Worth Avenue, where average rents are $95 a foot, according to Cushman & Wakefield market data.

Even so, the price tag for the three-building portfolio might seem aggressive to some retail experts, considering that not all the retail space fronts on Lincoln Road. One of the buildings is at 723 N. Lincoln Lane.

“It is probably a good buy and probably a good sell,” said Greg Masin, senior director with Cushman & Wakefield. “It allows the buyer to become a material landlord in what is the most compelling market in South Florida. This is not a T.J.Maxx buy. This is a Nordstrom full-retail buy.”

Terranova Chairman Stephen Bittel wasn’t immediately available to comment, but had this to say in a statement:

“The three-property Lincoln Road acquisition greatly enhances our fashion-forward, street-front retail product. Terranova now has a 61,000-sqaure-foot presence on Lincoln Road, once known as the Fifth Avenue of the South, and we will expand that moniker to Lincoln Lane, as local and national tenants clamor for retail space as buyers make their return to Miami Beach.”

By: Darcie Lunsford, Real Estate Editor
Read more: Terranova group buys slice of Lincoln Road | South Florida Business Journal

New South Beach Garage: Architectural Landmark

For her wedding over the weekend, Nina Johnson had worked through a predictable checklist of locations in town: hotel ballrooms, restaurant halls and catering outfits. She ended up going with "cinematic and absolutely dramatic!", as Nina's family and friends gathered for her hip and well decorated wedding cerimony at the top floor of South Beach's new $65M garage, overlooking the Miami Donwtown skyline and having the Atlantic Ocean as their background.

Created by a colorful Miami developer and a world-renowned architecture firm, it appears to be an entirely new form: a piece of carchitecture that resembles a gigantic loft apartment, with exaggerated ceiling heights, wide-open 360-degree views and no exterior walls.

The garage has an unlikely back story. Its developer, a contemporary art collector named Robert Wennett, bought the property in 2005, inheriting a drab-looking bank office and an unremarkable parking lot at the corner of two well-known boulevards, Lincoln and Alton Roads.

Quirky zoning regulations in the city, which is chronically short on parking, made it profitable to build a large garage — not everyone’s vision of a grand gateway to the retail and restaurant-filled streets that surround the site.

Mr. Wennett, who sprinkles his properties with $1 million Dan Graham sculptures and admits that he hates most of the garages he has ever parked in, aimed high, interviewing 10 top architects around the world. He settled on Herzog & de Meuron, a Swiss firm best known for transforming a power station into the Tate Modern gallery in London and designing the Olympic stadium in Beijing (known, by its appearance, as the Bird’s Nest).

What they produced, in early 2010, was all those things: a garage with floor heights of up to 34 feet, three times the norm; a striking internal staircase, with artwork embedded in its base; precarious looking (and feeling) ledges that rely on industrial-strength cable to hold back cars and people; and a glass cube that houses a designer clothing store, perhaps the first in the middle of a parking garage. Another interesting fact that even most local aren't aware of, is that Mr. Wennett built himself a large penthouse apartment on the roof.

In a final flourish, the architects created a soaring top floor that doubles as an event space, with removable parking barriers. It can be rented for about $12,000 to $15,000 a night.

“This is not a parking garage,” Mr. Wennett said. “It’s really a civic space.”

Not all the reviews are fawning. In interviews, several Miami drivers grumbled about the cost of parking in the garage — typically $4 an hour, depending on the time of day, compared with about $1 an hour in nearby municipal lots.

However, most visitors seem to overlook that: “I wouldn’t even think of parking anywhere else when I’m downtown,” said Douglas Sharon, a financial adviser, who steers his gray Ferrari into the garage several times a week.

By: Michael Barbaro

From: NY Times: A Miami Beach Event Space. Parking Space, Too.

City Furniture opens its first LEED store in Boca Raton

New York City -- Home furnishings retailer City Furniture has opened its first store built to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards. The 93,680-sq.-ft. location, in Boca Raton, Fla., houses a City Furniture and Ashley Furniture HomeStore under one roof.

The store has dual-flush toilets, low-flow urinals and a landscape irrigation system, and is expected to use 42% less water for interior use and 78% less outside than a traditional store. Walls are paneled with reclaimed wood. Design features include walls paneled with reclaimed wood and natural stone feature walls.

From: City Furniture opens store built to LEED standards

Dillard's plans to form Real Estate Investment Trust

In a regulatory filing on Wednesday Dillard's said it plans to form a real estate investment trust, with the objective of improving liquidity.

 

According to the department store retailer, various company entities will transfer interests in properties to the REIT, which will then lease the properties back to them.

"Dillard's believes the formation of a REIT may enhance its ability to access debt or preferred stock and thereby enhance its liquidity," the filing said.

Dillard's also said it had formed a captive insurance company, a wholly owned unit intended to allow the retailer to more efficiently manage its risks and open access to more reinsurance markets.

From: Dillards plans to form REIT

Orlando Malls Undergo Makeover during Uncertain Times

This could be the year of the mall makeover.

Several of Central Florida's malls hit hardest by the economic downturn are undergoing changes. Their goal is to lure back customers and tenants — a task that's likely going to be difficult.

"The market will still differentiate between winners and losers. .... Dominant regional and super-regional malls will continue to outperform inferior malls, even once a recovery takes hold."


Orlando Fashion Square, which lost many big-name stores over the past two years, is now focusing on tenants not traditionally found in malls. It is bringing in a couple of major new tenants expected to bring in foot traffic, even though the people won't initially come to shop.

Folks have already begun working up a sweat at Planet Fitness, in the wing near Sears. The Disney Entrepreneur Center will open this spring. Now in downtown Orlando, it consists of organizations that provide counseling and education to small business owners.

Both Planet Fitness and Disney Entrepreneur Center should raise Orlando Fashion Square's profile, said John Crossman, who handles leasing at the mall. "You get people who get the mall more in their mind," he said.

Two other struggling malls recently got new owners. General Growth Properties, which owns Altamonte Mall and West Oaks Mall, recently turned over Oviedo Marketplace to a company called CW Capital.

Retail experts have said they doubt whether Oviedo Marketplace can survive as a traditional mall. But manager Brian Olivi said the new owner hasn't given up hope.

"My understanding from discussions with ownership is they want to pursue this property as a retail entity," he said. "I don't see them changing concepts. I've heard rumors that this was going to become a hospital or something along those lines. That's not the intent of the ownership."

Festival Bay Mall, an unconventional center on International Drive, recently got sold to FB Orlando Acquisition Co. LLC, a group affiliated with the former owners of what used to be Prime Outlets-Orlando.

Some malls, including Mall at Millenia, have continued to thrive.

Buoyed by tourists, Orlando's outlet centers remain busy. Orlando Premium Outlets – Vineland Ave. will open three new stores this spring – Steve Madden, Vera Bradley and American Eagle.

By Sandra Pedicini
From: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-cfb-retail-011010-20110109,0,804577.story

Downtown Miami to Get 6 New Restaurants and Clubs

Downtown Miami could get a boost at revitalization this year.

Six new restaurants and night life operators are expected to occupy 20,000 square feet on the ground floor of Macy's west building, 2 W. Flagler St., in downtown Miami by June 1, said Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla II, managing partners of the Miami-based Barlington Group, which holds the master lease on the space.

Barlington Group is subleasing the space, which has been empty for five years, to the restaurants and night life operators. The partners declined to disclose the operators' names, but said each will have between 1,000 and 9,000 square feet of space.

Macy's will continue to occupy the east building.

``The idea is to create a night life scene and by doing that increase the foot traffic and pedestrian feel of the neighborhood at night,'' Fuller said.

By INA PAIVA CORDLE

From: Downtown Miami to Get 6 New Restaurants, Clubs.