The Recipe For Retail Success
Davis Street Land Company continues to develop its portfolio by attracting the right tenants.
Lindsey Walker

Retailers such as Talbots, Ann Taylor, Chico's, White House/Black Market and Coldwater Creek are a few that have signed leases in the first phase of Orland Park Crossing, which will feature approximately 50,000 square feet of specialty stores when it opens in suburban Chicago in October.

Davis Street has applied this philosophy to one of its latest ventures, The Mall at Green Hills in Nashville, Tennessee. Located near Vanderbilt University in one of the most affluent areas of Nashville, the 650,000-square-foot enclosed mall boasts an average household income of $94,000 per year within a 3-mile radius. Yet many of the upscale, specialty retailers that typically serve this demographic were not located in the marketplace.

Davis Street changed that when it purchased The Mall at Green Hills in April 2001. Since the company began its three-phase redevelopment of the center 2 years ago, it has been able to attract big names such as The Cheesecake Factory, Davis Kidd Books, Z Gallerie, Apple Computer, BCBG Max Azria, Cole Haan, Lucky Brand Jeans, Sigrid Olson, L'Occitane and Elisabeth, many of which are opening their first Nashville locations at Green Hills. These tenants join the existing lineup of retailers, which include J.Jill, Chico's, J. Crew, bebe, Coach, MAC, Pottery Barn, Ann Taylor and Williams-Sonoma.

“Almost two-thirds of the retailers in our center are unique to the Nashville market,” says Robert Perlmutter, principal with Davis Street.

The new tenants will locate to Davis Street's 80,000-square-foot expansion opening this October at the center, which is more than 90 percent leased. As part of the redevelopment, Davis Street also expanded and demolished part of the parking garage and built a new Hecht's store, which opened last fall. A future phase calls for an additional 120,000-square-foot specialty department store.

The mix of unique tenants in a desirable market leads Davis Street to believe that its redevelopment at The Mall at Green Hills will be a success.

“I think this center is very successful for a combination of reasons,” Perlmutter says. “Clearly the location and demographic make-up of the trade area is very important. But clearly a key element is the merchandise mix and our ability to attract the better specialty stores into the market. Many of them come with only one location, and that is Green Hills.”

Davis Street is developing Orland Park Crossing in suburban Chicago.

With Orland Park Crossing, Davis Street is filling that void in the market. Retailers such as Talbots, Ann Taylor, Chico's, White House/Black Market and Coldwater Creek are a few of the key upscale tenants that have taken advantage of the center's location and have signed on for the first phase, which will feature approximately 50,000 square feet of specialty stores when it opens in October.

“Because Orland Park is not located on a major highway, it's hard to get in and out of the trade area,” says Karen Land, principal with Davis Street. “It really captures an extended area for more than 10 miles, which provides an opportunity to bring to the market a number of new specialty stores.”

In addition to specialty retail, Phase I at Orland Park Crossing will include several outparcels and number of sit-down restaurants. Chicago-based Concord Homes is developing 85 multifamily units that will serve as a buffer between the commercial space and the surrounding single-family residences. The second phase, which will feature approximately 60,000 square feet of retail and office space, is expected to open by summer 2006, and the overall development is anticipated to be complete in 3 to 5 years.

Featuring landscaped boulevards in a downtown street grid, Orland Park Crossing will be located directly across the street from the city's new Metra station. And, by creating a village-like setting for the open-air center, Davis Street hopes to establish a downtown area for Orland Park, which, unlike many Chicago suburbs, does not have a downtown cluster of national retailers.

“When Orland Park developed, a traditional downtown was never established,” Perlmutter says. “Orland Park Crossing is set up as a streetscape setting in a smaller environment and will provide an alternative to a traditional downtown.”

With this ideal setting and strong trade area demographics — coupled with unique and high-end tenancy — Davis Street expects Orland Park Crossing to perform on par with its already established retail centers.

“The commonality we have in all our projects is really the tenant base,” Land says. “Based on the types of retailers we are putting into Orland Park Crossing, we expect similar productivity.”

Because it is a smaller group, Davis Street plans to concentrate most of its efforts on these two centers for the next few years. Upon their completion, the company may look to do more new development, like Orland Park Crossing, or focus on expanding its existing properties, such as The Mall at Green Hills project. Whatever path it chooses to take, Davis Street Land Company will continue to prove that David-sized companies can successfully compete in today's Goliath-dominated marketplace.