Fitting The Market
Continental Retail Development finds the right size project — and the right retailers — for the market.
Randall Shearin

Many retail developers face a constant temptation to reuse their most successful format until it resembles paint-by-numbers. While cultivating an expertise in mixed-use projects or power centers obviously has its advantages, developers run a bigger risk of shying away from opportunities that fall outside their sweet spots or trying to force the market to fit their formula. As the old cliché goes, when you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Columbus, Ohio-based Continental Retail Development has done a better job than most of keeping a full toolkit of development concepts at its disposal, which is why it’s become one of the most active privately-held development firms in the country.

“In our competitive environment, we have to be opportunistic,” says Continental President David Kass. “We can’t afford to wait for the perfect site with the perfect demographic for a lifestyle center. We take care to keep a flexible approach so that when we do secure a site, we don’t have to force a mixed-use project, or a power center, or a community center on it. We’re equally comfortable with using any of the three.”

That approach has served Continental well over the last 15 years, during which time the company has developed more than $2 billion worth of mixed-use retail, office space and entertainment destinations. The company is planning to add to that total in the next 2 years with a duo of lifestyle centers under construction in Tennessee and Connecticut, along with a power center closer to home in Columbus.

The Streets of Indian Lake

The Streets of Indian Lake will be a 350,000-square-foot lifestyle center in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

Located in Hendersonville, Tennessee, an affluent suburb of Nashville, The Streets of Indian Lake will be a 350,000-square-foot lifestyle center occupying two-thirds of the total site’s 60 acres, while the remainder will be host to an adjacent 200,000-square-foot power center.

Continental has secured Regal Cinemas and Barnes & Noble as anchor tenants, with the former contributing a 16-screen, 65,000-square-foot multi-screen theater, and the latter a 28,000-square-foot store. Featured tenants will include a mix of upscale fashion apparel and lifestyle retailers including Talbot’s, Chico’s, Jos. A. Bank, Victoria’s Secret, Coldwater Creek, Ann Taylor Loft and Bath & Body Works, among others.

Indian Lake will be delivered to tenants in fall 2007, and is schedule to open later that year or in early 2008. The adjoining power center will begin construction in 2007 and open in mid-2008. “The Nashville market is booming,” Kass says, “and the city is looking more and more like the next Charlotte. This is the right style of project at the right time for an increasingly affluent market.”

The Streets of New Milford

Continental’s Streets of New Milford, Connecticut, project is a 105,000-square-foot specialty retail-focused lifestyle center tailored to the tastes of the region’s affluent shoppers.

Continental’s Streets of New Milford, Connecticut, project is a smaller (105,000 square feet), specialty retail-focused lifestyle center tailored to the tastes of the region’s affluent shoppers.

Development restrictions led Continental to pursue a much smaller footprint with more upscale retailers along the lines of its Streets of Chester lifestyle center in Chester, New Jersey, where the tenant mix includes Coach, J. Crew, and Ann Taylor.

“There are significant barriers to entry in Connecticut,” Kass says, “and this is a site that’s already 100 percent zoned, which has retailers looking at this market very excited.” Located on Route 7, one of New Milford’s main arteries, The Streets of New Milford is slated to begin construction in summer 2007 and open a year later.

Parkway Centre

Parkway Centre in Grove City, Ohio, on the outskirts of Columbus, is a collection of big box-anchored power centers.

One of Continental’s best examples of its diverse development approach, Parkway Centre in Grove City, Ohio, on the southern outskirts of Columbus, is collection of big box-anchored power centers that comprise the company’s largest project of this type to date. Built in phases encompassing Parkway South (completed in 2004), Parkway North (completed in 2006) and Parkway East (spring 2007), the finished project will boast 1.2 million square feet of big box retail, with further parcels set aside for service retailers.

Each component comprises approximately 400,000 square feet of retail. Parkway South’s tenants include a Wal-Mart Super Center, T.J. Maxx, Bed Bath & Beyond, Staples and PetSmart. Parkway Center North, which opened this year, is anchored by Home Depot, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Best Buy and Michaels. Continental announced in September 2006 that Kohl’s will open in Parkway North in spring 2007. The last component to be completed, Parkway East, will open in stages throughout 2007 with Target being the first retailer to open

“We’ve achieved critical mass in the region with these three centers,” Kass says, “and the south side of Columbus is now on the retail map.”  Until recently, most of the development had been on the north side of the city, namely Easton and Polaris.

Continental prides itself on being a patient and opportunistic developer according to Kass.  He says that the fact that the company does not have to find a site to fit a particular product type or in a specific geographical location, gives Continental a distinct advantage.  According to Kass, “there’s nothing wrong with being a hammer, just so long as you are not trying to put a square peg in a round hole.”


©2007 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.