Lifestyle centers are increasingly distinguishing themselves from traditional malls by putting more emphasis on women's apparel stores and restaurants, according to an ICSC study of nearly 80 U.S. lifestyle centers.
The report, The Remaking of Lifestyle Centers: The Ascendancy of Women's Apparel and Restaurants, shows that between 2004 and 2007, the number of women's ready-to-wear stores (e.g., Ann Taylor, Chicos, J. Jill) increased 1.63 percent to 585 from 487. Women's wear accounted for 14.6 percent of lifestyle center tenant mix in 2007, up from 12.5 percent in 2004.
Restaurants grew 0.92 percent to 533 from 466 inside lifestyle centers. In terms of proportion of total tenants, this was 12.9 percent in 2007, versus 12 percent in 2004.
Kelly Tackett, a senior consultant at TNS Retail Forward, the retail consultant firm, said that because of their easy parking, lifestyle centers offer more convenience than malls and are consequently a good fit for women's ready-to-wear stores. "Convenience has always been one of the main attractions of the lifestyle concept," Ms. Tacket told Shopping Centers Today.
Joshua Poag, CFO of Memphis, Tenn.-based Poag & McEwen, an early developer of the lifestyle center concept, also noted that lifestyle centers are generally positioned to respond faster than larger malls to shifts in consumer preference, such as an increased demand for women's ready-to-wear.
"Lifestyle centers are more in tune with what's going on in consumer preferences, partly because they can be," Mr. Poag told Shopping Centers Today. "Older and larger malls tend to have tenants with 10- or 15-year leases, longer on average than the tenant base of a lifestyle center, so there's more flexibility in the lifestyle center model in remaking a tenant mix."
The increasing popularity of restaurants at lifestyle centers is largely a function of convenience as well.
"Restaurants depend on one of the fundamental characteristics of the lifestyle center: close parking," said Mr. Poag. "Parking is the key to the lifestyle center concept. The consumer has to be able to walk right into the store, and when you think about restaurants, parking is crucial in exactly the same way."
At the same time, malls saw the largest hike in family apparel stores and a decline in women's ready-to-wear stores. Overall, malls still feature much more apparel and accessory stores than lifestyle centers (53.1 percent of leasable space to 29.3 percent, respectively). Lifestyle centers contain more home furniture and furnishings stores (14.4 percent to 3.7 percent); restaurants (11.8 percent to 5.8 percent); supermarkets (4.2 percent to zero) and movie theaters (7.8 percent to 4.7 percent).
Discussion Question: Why do you think women's ready-to-wear stores appear to be a natural fit for lifestyle centers? What other types of retailers do you see as ideal for lifestyle centers?