REMAKING MALLS

Remaking malls More changes are coming to Nashville’s indoor and outdoor retail centers

BY WILLIAM WILLIAMS

he appearance and usage of large

T scale retail spaces nationwide are rapidly being altered.

And Nashville’s indoor and outdoor malls are, not surprisingly, seeing such a facelift. e changes to both the form and function of indoor and outdoor retail facilities alike are being driven by multiple factors, not the least of which is a retail real estate industry that has been dramatically disrupted during a relatively brief time span.

Many massive indoor malls have closed nationwide (think Bellevue Center locally) to accommodate major reinventions of the sites on which they operated, while large-scale outdoor retail strips are likewise seeing modications that render them more “urban” in their form and function (for example, the Madison Town Center project planned for the Davidson County community from which that name derives).

Clearly, this is not a new phenomenon. e former One Hundred Oaks mall was reimagined years ago, its main tenant now a Vanderbilt health facility. e ex-Harding Mall site has accommodated a Walmart Supercenter structure so long that only local old-timers remember when the property oered an indoor mall with, among others, a movie theater complex, Port O’Call record shop and a Dillard’s retail store.

Around the country, many other malls are equally likely to be pushed into the history books. Steve Sadove, a former CEO of Saks, told Bloomberg News in mid-June that the combination of long-term trends and the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic will bring huge changes.

“We’re in a reset period right now,” Sadove said. “ere are 1,200 malls in the United States. I think in the next three or four years, a third of them may go away.”

Today, Davidson County is home to a mere three conventional big-box indoor malls: e Mall at Green Hills, Opry Mills, and RiverGate Mall.

And, as noted, many of the city’s older, large outdoor shopping centers — including Donelson Plaza, Lions Head Village (now home to a Trader Joe) and the renamed Hill Center at Nashville West (anchored by a Publix) — have seen signicant updates so as to be more appealing to younger shoppers.

Adding to this “new-look retail mix” is Hill Center Green Hills, which opened more than a decade ago and has been extremely popular. It has brought urban vibrancy to a site that previously accommodated typical suburban retail strip center.

“e shift away from large regional shopping malls has been years, maybe decades in the making, pushed along by megatrends in technology and demographics,” says Je Kuhnhenn, Gresham Smith director of architectural design.

‘The shift away from large regional shopping malls has been years, maybe decades in the making, pushed along by megatrends in technology and demographics.’

JEFF KUHNHENN, GRESHAM SMITH

“All of these facilities are located in the ‘Land that Cars Created,’” Kuhnhenn adds. “e old adage that retail follows rooftops was as true then as it is now, but it only works in these areas if you’re willing to get in your car, and the internet has changed all that. e abundance of cheap land led to segregated uses: houses in one place, oces in another, schools in a third, and shopping and services still somewhere else. Ironically, though all of these facilities are well situated among residential neighborhoods, they are nevertheless disconnected from the residential areas — separated by six-lane roads and layers of drive-thru outparcels.”

Because of the physical nature, and suburban locales, of most of Nashville’s major retails strips, the key challenge is connectivity to yield a diversity of uses, Kuhnhenn says.

“But remaking the transit infrastructure and geometry presents major obstacles,” he says. “Fortunately, many suburban retail centers are land-rich. You can ‘build your own diversity.’ I like concepts that bring oce, hospitality and/or residential together, meaningfully, to activate the shopping and add to the critical mass of activity. Many of these have the benet of making good shared parking scenarios. Vanderbilt One Hundred Oaks is probably the best example of this strategy in action in Nashville.”

In addition, Kuhnhenn says he likes retail buildings that center around a major public amenity, such as a hybrid library/community center and/or an open green space. Examples include the aforementioned Donelson Plaza (to oer a library), Madison Town Center (to feature civic space) and Hill Center Greenwood (underway in East Nashville and to be anchored by a Publix).

“ey create magnets for neighborhoods to gather around that promote community cohesion,” he says.

Of course, executing the vision is not easy.

A long-standing eort to redevelop the site of the former Hickory Hollow Mall property was scrapped last November.

Nashville-based businessman and auto dealership owner Ben Freeland had planned to reinvent the property, home to Global Mall at e Crossings and with an address of 5252 Hickory Hollow Parkway.

LONG-TERM TREND

The U.S. regional mall vacancy rate has been climbing steadily for years. Research firm Reis said this spring that rents have held up in part because mall owners have sold oΠparts of their properties or converted space to self-storage facilities, trampoline parks or other nontraditional uses.

10.0%

VACANCY RATE

9.6%

9.2%

8.8%

8.4%

8.0%

7.6%

2017 Q1

Source: Reis 2018 Q1 2019 Q1 2020 Q1

A major proponent of improving the general Antioch area, Freeland was slated to buy the 27 acres of property owned by Global Mall Partnership and previously home to conventional indoor mall Hickory Hollow Mall. at vision will not be deployed, but ESa Ron Lustig says there is still hope for an updated Global Mall at the Crossings. e facility oers the type aforementioned anchors — a Metro public library, a branch for Nashville State Community College and the Ford Ice Center Antioch — that could make further improvements more enticing and successful than otherwise.

“Mass transit would help to improve e Crossings as a major transportation hub,” Lustig says. “is could possibly be a stop between Nashville and Murfeesboro. ere is also the possibility of adding some health care options that are close to or within [the facility].”

As to RiverGate Mall — which opened to great fanfare in the late 1960s — most agree the facility needs an overhaul.

Rob Foss, head of retail for the local of- ce of Toronto-based commercial real estate company Avison Young, says the “highest and best use of the mall land is to be redeveloped primarily with a mix of multi-family / townhomes with retail around the periphery facing the main high-trac arteries.”

“It’s a massive property and its prominence gives the opportunity to really set a new tone in the area and raise the bar,” Foss says.

And on the massive property theme, local real estate investors Tom Corcoran and Jim Maddox late last year listed for sale for $30 million their Madison property on which Madison Town Center is planned.

Located at 721 Gallatin Pike S., the approximately 33-acre site (formerly known as Madison Square Shopping Center) oers multiple buildings with a collective 331,000 square feet. Full-scale work is continuing at the site and will unfold in four phases. e center remains leased with multiple tenants while phase one is underway.

Corcoran and Maddox have worked with Metro Councilmember Nancy VanReece, in whose District 8 the property sits, and Metro Planning Department sta regarding proper

zoning and appropriate hoped-for development. Any future buyer will be expected to adhere to the site’s zoning requirements. e property has been approved for buildings with a collective 3.75 million square feet, including up to 1,000 residences. Of the latter, 10 percent will need to be designated as aordable.

Foss says the vision related to the planned Madison Town Center is strong.

“How often do you see a 30-plus acre opportunity within such a densely populated area with such great trac counts and access?” he asks. “I love the mix of workforce and market housing [being proposed]. e challenge is to make sense of the cost to build 1,000-plus units of high-quality housing at rent thresholds that make sense. e developer(s) will need to set the tone with each phase to create value for the next. It has the potential to function as somewhat of a town square for Madison.”

ESa’s Lustig says the proposed development “does a great job” of incorporating retail and residential with housing (both aordable and market rate).

“e civic space enhances the development with green space,” he says. “If Madison Town Center becomes part of a major transportation hub, it will be successful.”

As to future local sites that could be updated but for which no plans have been announced, some point to Hickory Plaza Shopping Center at the intersection of Nolensville Road and Old Hickory Boulevard in South Nashville and Belle Meade Plaza, located near the Harding Pike and White Bridge Road intersection on the city’s west side.

“Any place with an ocean of parking and a huge roof is a good candidate,” Gresham Smith’s Kuhnhenn says. “ese such sites are already at the intersections of major roads and likely surrounded by single-family housing. I think we might look beyond underutilized retail and consider other land-rich single-use properties. Maryland Farms is full of asphalt and open spaces. With an aging population, maybe we should be looking at hospital real estate as potentially supporting new types of synergistic, diverse development. is goes, too, for oce buildings and campuses that also have loads of surface parking that sit empty two-thirds of every day.”

ESa’s Lustig says Belle Meade Plaza oers some opportunities. e 1960s-era development has Kroger as an anchor and lots of surface parking that could be built upon.

“Belle Meade Plaza could become more of a pedestrian-friendly experience and be connected to the greenway that runs all the way to downtown,” he says. “By creating outdoor dining spaces to a number of the restaurants here, it would increase its potential as a destination.”

SAVE THE DATE

AUGUST 27, 2020

Join the Post team at a cocktail gathering to celebrate the release of our fall magazine and get a sneak peak at the newly completed Peabody Plaza o ce tower. The magazine will be anchored by stories showcasing commercial and residential projects and ideas that are taking Nashville and other areas of Middle Tennessee to the next level. Join us as we raise a glass to the region's continued economic growth and development.