new
What once was old is now
By Jason Miller
Transforming
greyfield sites
into new
communities
Left and above: Belmar in Lakewood, Colo.
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ON COMMON GROUND SUMMER 2005
I
n the evolution of retail, shopping malls as we know them
represent the end of an era. Increasingly, underperforming
or obsolete malls — a.k.a. “greyfield” sites — are going the
way of the dinosaur and being replaced by mixed-use neighborhoods, which allow residents to reach many of their daily needs
by simply taking a short walk from their residences. Shops,
restaurants, transit links, parks, offices, cultural buildings such
as libraries and other needs of modern life are situated near residential choices that include single-family homes, apartments,
condominiums and live/work buildings.
Greyfields are becoming an increasingly common sight in the
American landscape, the most common iteration of which is the
conventional strip mall whose anchor tenant has moved out or
whose bottom line has succumbed to the pressures of competition from discount stores, Internet commerce and newer malls in
newer suburbs. In its 2001 study by PricewaterhouseCoopers,
the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) reported that 19 percent of the nation’s 2,000 regional malls were in greyfield status
or vulnerable to becoming so, having sales per square foot of
$150 or less (one-third the rate of sales at a successful mall).
Other studies have estimated between 4,000 and 5,500 smaller
greyfield malls nationally.
Resources for revival
The CNU maintains certain principles for success when
transforming greyfields into desirable places:
• Evolve the site from a single structure into a district
with subdistricts
• Establish a street pattern
• Reorient activity to face the street
• Connect with the surrounding community
• Integrate multiple uses
• Design for human scale
• Include housing
• Customize to fit local needs
But following these principles can be a challenge for municipalities that are uncertain how to proceed or unaware of the
resources available to them. One such resource is the third phase
of the CNU greyfields study, slated for release in summer 2005.
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Following up on the first two phases, which identified the greyfields problem and presented case
studies on in-progress projects, the third-phase
report aims to serve as a guide for property owners,
developers, city officials and other community
leaders to use in analyzing greyfields in their
neighborhoods. The report encourages an openminded approach to greyfield redevelopment, stating that a mixed-use neighborhood is not always
the best strategy for renewal; often, renovation or
reuse are more feasible approaches. For more information on the study, visit the CNU Web site at
www.cnu.org.
Greyfield projects are booming, according to
New Urban News, a New Urbanist newsletter
based in Ithaca, New York. In late 2003 it counted
43 infill, greyfield and brownfield developments in
its annual list of New Urban projects. The more
mature greyfield redevelopment projects are the
beneficiaries of committed local city governments,
and are following New Urbanist principles to much
success.
Belmar
Lakewood, Colorado
One of the more sweeping greyfield transformations in the nation, Belmar is a mixed-use renovation and redevelopment of the failing Villa Italia
mall in Lakewood — Colorado’s fourth-largest city.
Composed of 23 city blocks (104 acres), Belmar has
The market at Belmar
Greyfield projects are
booming, according to
New Urban News.
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ON COMMON GROUND SUMMER 2005
become a bustling, vibrant downtown district for
Lakewood, which had no such district before the
renovation effort began.
The recipient of a 2005 CNU Charter Award,
Belmar is approximately 40 percent complete at
press time, with build-out scheduled for another
seven to 10 years. It represents the cumulative will
of the city of Lakewood and its residents, who clamored for a downtown, an identity for the city, says
Will Fleissig, director for planning and design with
Continuum Partners LLC, the project’s developer.
“The community had a very clear vision about
what it wanted,” says Fleissig. “And now the vision
has national implications. We took a 1.4-millionsquare-foot mall and worked with the city to downsize the retail and make the site denser without creating a burden on the existing street — the transit
lines allowed this. If you can increase a site’s density by two or three times while not increasing the
burden on the adjoining roads, well, that’s what we
need to be doing in America — especially in the
inner-ring suburbs.”
In order to get out of the ground, however,
Belmar needed more than political and community
will. “To create a downtown, you need to create
some kind of structured parking, and that can be
difficult to afford,” says Fleissig. “The city worked
with us on investment that allowed for the new
sales tax revenues from the project to be garnered
for the roads, the trees, the parking. It was a perfect
financing solution — and it worked.”
Belmar in Lakewood, Colo.
Local response to Belmar has been encouraging, says Fleissig. “We’re seeing quite a bit of reinvestment around the site — a resurgence in development in the vicinity. There’s at least a half
dozen of these types of development nearby, trying to leverage our success.”
Belmar has only recently opened up its first residential offerings, but even in these early stages,
the home-buying public likes what it sees, says
Steve Jones, a REALTOR® with Denver-based
Kentwood City Properties. “We’re presently selling 12 loft-style condos in a mixed-use building, a
more modern style and type which is pretty much
the first of its kind in Lakewood. Out of those 12
units, we’ve closed four and have four more under
contract.
“The response has been really good, and even
though some people look in and find the modern
loft concept a little too harsh, the people who have
bought these properties are just blown away by
having someone offer something this contemporary in Lakewood. The buyers tend to be young,
single, professional people who can’t afford to live
in downtown Denver, but want the feel of an urban
loft.”
The Belmar loft condos are selling for $239,000
to $255,000. All are 1,020 square feet and offer one
bedroom with a study or a den, plus a bathroom,
private outdoor spaces, garage parking and additional storage.
It feels like a real
downtown — and it’s
only been created in
the last year.
“The people who visit on the weekends are
overwhelmed at how many people are out and
about, enjoying the space,” says Jones. “In my
opinion, five years down the road, Belmar is going
to be used as a model across the country for how
to do a huge infill project out of a mall. It feels like
a real downtown — and it’s only been created in
the last year.”
Santana Row
San Jose, California
Santana Row started with a bang. In August
2002, barely a year into its construction and a
mere month before its scheduled grand opening,
an unexplained fire erupted, torching 34 apartment units in the development. It was the largest
fire in San Jose history, and it put a damper on
Santana Row’s momentum, pushing the grand
opening out to the end of 2002.
Borrowing its name from Santana Park, a nearby half-acre park that eventually will be incorpo-
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A place where residents can live, eat, shop, stay,
and play — without ever getting in their cars.
rated into the project, the 42-acre Santana Row is
the largest mixed-use project ever built in San Jose.
At $1 billion, its price tag bears that out. In its past
life, Santana Row was the Town & Country Mall, a
conventional, single-story strip mall that had suffered from reduced patronage and sales tax revenue. In March 1997, Maryland-based developer
Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRIT) purchased
the property, razing the mall and beginning construction in 2001. This paved the way for a new,
mixed-use development that FRIT contends will
provide a “unique mix of shopping, dining, entertainment and living, designed to enhance the individual experience.”
So far, that prediction has held true. Modeled
after a typical European urban space, Santana Row
boasts high-density, mixed-use buildings that
house every urban amenity imaginable — including the 213-room Hotel Valencia and a 12-screen
cinema. The raw numbers alone are impressive:
• 558,000 square ft. of retail (680,000 sq. ft. at
completion)
• 501 residential units, of which 219 are condos
(1,201 residential units at completion)
Retail options at Santana Row are decidedly
upscale, but many offer their wares to residents for
a discount. Walk down the pedestrian-friendly
main street and you’ll see more than 100 stores,
with names such as Gucci, Diesel, Ann Taylor,
Burberry, Anthropologie, and Crate & Barrel. The
Santana Row, San Jose, Calif.
18-plus restaurants — many from San Francisco,
like Blowfish Sushi and the Straits Café — are getting great reviews, and a traditional farmers’ market helps to leaven the scene with a bit of down-toearth flavor.
Cutting-edge technology inclusions mix well
with the elegant European ambience here. The residential dwelling units offer broadband Internet
access, wireless capabilities, 500-channel DirectTV,
and multi-line phone service. A high-tech, 24-hour
fitness center hosts residents. At the same time, two
parks are just a stroll away, outfitted with outdoor
chess, an outdoor theater, splashing fountains and
eye-candy landscaping.
These condo properties were available for sale
mere days before this article went to press. But with
wall-to-wall amenities only steps away from residents’ doorsteps, few can doubt the sales potential.
Already, Santana is generating sales tax revenue
for the city of San Jose and the numbers are rising
steadily.
Like most redevelopment projects of its scale,
though, Santana Row has not been without controversy. While some observers hail it as a model for
Smart Growth, others have criticized it for competing too aggressively with San Jose’s newly revitalized downtown — just 3 . 5 miles away — and
another neighboring retail concern, the Valley Fair
Mall. But Santana Row’s retail tenants dispute this
concern, saying those claims are unwarranted, that
the development is filling a retail
niche that will attract a different
market segment: one that will
respond to Santana Row’s promise
of a place where residents can live,
eat, shop, stay and play — without
ever getting in their cars.
Bayshore
Glendale, Wisconsin
Built in 1955, the Bayshore
Mall in Glendale, Wis., is about to
get a new lease on life. In need of
serious renovations, the mall
struggled to compete in the
changing marketplace of southeastern Wisconsin.
Since many residents in the
area leave the state and travel to
the Chicago area, where there is a
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ON COMMON GROUND SUMMER 2005
Santana Row, San Jose, Calif.
wider variety of retail options, developer Steiner +
Associates saw an opportunity to bring upscale
retail to the region. In addition, Glendale, a community minutes from downtown Milwaukee, was
in need of its own town center to attract visitors
from all over the state and bring Glendale a better
sense of community.
The owner of the mall, Dallas-based Corrigan
Holdings, partnered with the city of Glendale’s
Community Development Authority, which provided crucial public funding to move the $300million project through the planning stages and
into the construction phase. “This is an exciting
time for the city of Glendale and its surrounding
communities,” says Glendale Mayor Jay Hintze.
“Over the next few years, Bayshore Mall will be
transformed into a community gathering place —
a town center that we’ve never seen before. The
evolution of the new Bayshore Mall will be exciting to watch and will have a tremendous impact
on the city of Glendale and the entire North
Shore area.”
When complete, Bayshore will combine its
open-air, town-square-style components with a
revitalized, enclosed mall component, offering 1.2
million square feet of retail space. Retail choices
will range from large anchor tenants like Boston
Store, Sears and Kohl’s Department Store to many
smaller retailers. Bayshore will include 180,000
square feet of office space and 150,000 square feet
of entertainment space, including several restaurants and a possible comedy club and/or art theater complex. Also included in the mixed-use project is a residential component that will consist of
81 townhouse condominiums and 120 upscale
apartments. A one-acre “town square” park will
also grace Bayshore, providing a suitable locale
for public gatherings, concerts and possibly ice
skating.
At press time, Bayshore had begun its construction phase. The project is slated for completion in
fall 2006.
Reclaiming the land
Belmar, Santana Row and Bayshore are just
three examples of a nationwide effort to transform
troubled properties into vibrant places where people want to live, work and play. As malls and other
large-scale developments buckle under their own
unsustainable weight or unforeseen market forces,
more opportunities should arise for knowledgeable city officials, developers, community leaders
and REALTORS® to reclaim the land, fix the mistakes or simply move a property toward its next
incarnation — hopefully, one that will last longer
and contribute more to its community.
Jason Miller is a freelance writer, editor and publishing
consultant based in St. Paul, Minnesota.
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