Dead malls litter the US, but they are thriving with new identities. As the retail industry evolves, cities across the country are grappling with the tall task of repurposing these large, existing sites in core districts.
Communities must get creative, rezoning to accommodate for office, multifamily, or industrial distribution centers. Every solution is slightly different, but no matter the approach, successfully turning around these older assets requires a multi-use point of view.
With a boom in population and a pinch on available land, Utah cities are being forced to update existing infrastructure, optimize land use, and reimagine current real estate assets with high-density development as the focal point.
Adapt and survive
Previously known as University Mall, a marquee Utah County development has reinvented itself as a bustling center of community life. Smack in the middle of Utah County, University Place embodies the “live, work, play” paradigm that forward-thinking developers across the country are rallying around.
“Retailers have failed to evolve,” says Jeff Woodbury, VP of acquisitions and development at Woodbury Corporation—University Place’s parent company. He explains how “dinosaurs” like Sears bemoan the nemesis of online shopping, yet Apple’s stores are doing just fine, averaging a mind-boggling $1,000 per square foot of sales floor space. “The most successful stores take advantage of bricks and clicks,” Woodbury says. It’s about “evolving and keeping up with technology.”
Providing more than just retail
Woodbury Corporation opened the University Mall in the early 1970s. The 120-acre development featured ZCMI and JC Penney as flagship attractions, and the mall did quite well over the ensuing decades, adding Nordstrom, Costco, a Cinemark theater, and more. In 2012, spurred in part by the departure of Nordstrom, Woodbury Corporation changed the name—swapping “Mall” for “Place”—and reimagined the development as a communal nexus “where you can live, work, shop, and play.”