DO BETTER

Are we ready for the redevelopment of the Lakewood shopping center — a West Village-style re-do using the iconic movie theater as its focus? This is not to say it will happen, or even that it could, given the zoning and ownership problems that would have to be solved.

But talk to enough commercial real estate types, and their answer is almost always the same. If Lincoln Property, which bought the north part of the center last summer, wants to maximize its return, it will almost certainly have to do more than move lowpaying tenants to its Gaston-GarlandGrand property and replace them with to Arboretum Boulevard). But several of the people I talked to — all of whom asked not to be identified, since they do business with the company — said it’s not difficult to imagine a scenario where Lincoln would propose remodeling the center along the lines described above. And, if it worked closely with the area’s neighborhood groups to develop a first-class project that would minimize traffic, identify key tenants to bring in, and boost property values, it’s certainly possible that Lincoln could overcome neighborhood resistance. tenants better able to afford higher rents. Said one: “It’s all about highest and best use.”

How could Lincoln Property not want to turn the Lakewood shopping center into a showpiece? But its efforts so far show that Lincoln may well be happy with taking the path of least resistance.

Lincoln, as always, didn’t respond to an interview request (no doubt I should have been a little more circumspect on its proposal to rename Garland Road

There’s much to be said for offering to take the center into the 21st century while keeping those things that make it such an important part of the neighborhood. We could have a signature urban development that would be an example not just for the rest of the city but the country as well. (It would make some silly bridge look like the boondoggle that it has always been.)

Lincoln would have to overcome three hurdles to make any of this work. First, the area’s zoning, a 41-page planned development district that stretches from the Whole Foods to the Faulkner building, does not allow above-ground parking, and this kind of project requires a parking garage to make financial sense. One estimate? That it hold 250 to 300 cars. Second, the shopping center is owned by two other groups — the theater strip by Lake Highlands’ Rutledge-Willingham, and the old library building in the middle by the Diener and Mills families.

Any proposal would have to amend this maze of zoning, never easy in this part of town, and figure out a way around the ownership tangle. Though, and this may be telling, a Lincoln representative apparently approached one of the other owners about selling last year.

The third obstacle? Whether Lincoln has the political and financial will to do this kind of project. It is one of the most respected retail and residential developers in the country, and I would have bet anything, when it bought the center, that this kind of project would have been on its agenda. How could it not want to turn the shopping center into a showpiece?

But its efforts so far — shifting tenants to and fro and proposing nothing more than another suburban-style strip center at Gaston, Garland and Grand — show that Lincoln may well be happy with taking the path of least resistance. One commercial real estate broker told me, given what he knows of the company’s mindset, that it’s content to bring tenants into the shopping center that can pay double the rent that current tenants were paying. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, and it’s Lincoln’s right.

But it doesn’t seem like the highest and best use for the property.