Turning Burbank Around
Crown Realty & Development and General Growth Properties’ third-party management team have successfully remerchandised Burbank Town Center.
Stephen O’Kane

Burbank Town Center in Burbank, California, features approximately 600,000 square feet on three levels.

With 140 stores and 1.2 million gross leaseable square feet, Burbank Town Center is making changes to become one of the most popular retail shopping destinations in California. Burbank Town Center opened in 1991 in downtown Burbank and originally was a development of Alexander Haagen Properties, which later became Center Trust. However, what opened in 1991 is far from the center that exists today. The center’s current owners, Jaime Sohacheski and Robert Flaxman, co-founders of Southern California-based Crown Realty & Development, partnered with General Growth Properties (GGP) in order to transform the center and realize the full potential of the property.

“During the latter years of Center Trust’s ownership they retained General Growth Properties to manage the property and help them formulate a redevelopment plan,” says Flaxman, who is president and co-founder of Crown Realty & Development. “They had brought it to market and were attempting to find tenants for the proposed plan when we bought the center. We reviewed the plan that they had at that time and felt that it did not really work. We did not perceive wide market acceptance in the plan and gave direction to General Growth and our project team to come up with a new plan, which they did.”

That plan was to reposition and remerchandise the center, using GGP’s national experience and tenant relationships, to attract the local demographic and take advantage of the convenient downtown location. “We started talking with Crown Realty and the genesis of Burbank’s future was with them,” says Kate Sheehy, director of GGP’s third-party management team. “When Crown acquired the asset, they had a real belief in the future of Burbank Town Center as a regional shopping destination and they wanted to partner with someone who could execute on some of that belief.”

“General Growth Properties is one of the predominant owner/developers of malls in the world and we felt that their expertise brought a lot of valuable talent to our repositioning and management plans,” Flaxman says.

General Growth brought Old Navy and Bed Bath & Beyond to the center in 2006 and landed another major tenant for 2007 with Loehmann’s. The national retailer of women’s and men’s designer fashions will occupy 25,000 square feet at Burbank Town Center, which marks the 13th new tenant since the beginning of 2006. It is scheduled to open this spring. In addition to adding several new tenants, the partnership has completed numerous renovations to the property including improved connectivity to the downtown Burbank village district with an enhanced Magnolia Boulevard entrance.

Burbank Town Center is anchored by Sears, Macy’s and Mervyns but also features popular retailers such as Old Navy and Bed Bath & Beyond.

The partnership between the two companies has remained strong and continues to update the center to constantly cater to consumers’ wants and needs. The two companies discussed the best strategies to turn the center around and to discover what strengths they could capitalize on in order to bring the center back to life. By taking advantage of the terrific demographics, Crown took the dormant center and turned it into a vibrant part of the Burbank community.

The interior mall portion of Burbank Town Center features approximately 600,000 square feet on three levels. The retail development is anchored by Sears, Macy’s and Mervyns but also features popular retailers such as Old Navy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Sport Chalet, Zumiez, Zales Jewelers, American Eagle, Victoria’s Secret, Charlotte Russe, Anchor Blue, Aldo Shoes, Forever 21, AMC Theaters 8, Hot Topic, P.F. Chang’s and Pomodoro Cucina Italiana.

“The addition of Bed Bath & Beyond was significant in terms of revitalizing the lower level,” says Sheehy, “but having P.F. Chang’s at the street, and connecting with the community in that way, is giving that anchor feel in the community. We have started with a good junior lineup but we’re now starting to look at things like strengthening the children’s mix with the addition of a play area and Old Navy coming in, so that the whole building is family friendly.”

General Growth Properties’ role in the project is to lease and manage Burbank Town Center. The company believes that to create a successful redevelopment plan, one must know the area in which they are working. “We have a regional team in place to work with Crown on developing the strategies, and that kind of collaboration really happens at the regional level with the clients,” Sheehy says. “People who can connect to the market, have in-depth understanding of the asset and recognize great merchandising, are the folks that develop that merchandising strategy for the asset.”

“The trade area is really strong and improving,” says Flaxman. “We think the trade area in Burbank, in many respects, is as good if not better than Glendale. The problem, relative to Burbank Town Center, was a poor merchandising plan. In other words, they had a good demographic base but not good merchandise. And what we found was, as we improved the merchandising mix at Burbank, so have the sales.”

So how exactly does this type of lasting partnership begin? Sheehy believes that the experience of the companies has a part to play. General Growth Properties has an exclusive third-party management team that is solely focused on these types of projects. The team also has full access to all of General Growth’s tenants. As one of the largest owners and operators of shopping centers in the U.S., this brings enormous clout to Burbank Town Center.

“The first thing is focusing on top line revenue, where the leasing strategy plays — getting the right stores at the right rents,” says Sheehy. “But then you have also got the whole business development process, the specialty leasing. And Burbank, because of its outstanding location and demographics, was also able to take advantage of some of our strategic partnership, where we bring national strategic partners to the centers and they end up using that shopping center as a venue to reach their consumer.”

Crown Realty and General Growth Properties recognize the importance of catering to the retailer as well as the consumer. Retailers want to be a part of successful centers, and when they see companies addressing their needs, they are more likely to work with that particular company again. “You are telling your story every day to the consumer,” says Sheehy. “They are in there and they are seeing it, but now you have another story to tell your retailers. Retailers like to join success.”

The partnership is dedicated to keeping Burbank Town Center successful by continuously updating the property. This year, plans include a possible food court remodel, family restrooms and additional improvement to the center’s common areas. General Growth also will focus on bringing in some fashion forward retail apparel to cater to the growing family demographic in the area. “You need to make that family connection and provide them with the apparel choices they are looking for,” says Sheehy.

When Crown Realty & Development acquired Burbank Town Center, sales per square foot were approximately in the low $300 range. Now the center is trending higher than $450 per square foot. That kind of turnaround does not come easy.

“One of the things that I really admire about Crown in particular is that they know they have something unique in Burbank Town Center,” comments Sheehy. “But the center was not going to take ‘cookie-cutter’ solutions. It needed a customized solution focused on the unique attributes of that asset and its unique challenges. That’s what GGP loves to do and I think that’s where we have the ability to shine — when we can present customized solutions and very individualized merchandising. Then you get the development expertise added into that and you have it all coming together. That’s why this has been such a great partnership. We were able to bring a lot of different strengths to the asset but make sure that we were executing on their vision.”


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