Quote:
Originally Posted by Kumabjorn
I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the concept of a mall "anchor". Would that be the large retailer (Sears, Target) at the opposite ends of the mall?
If they were at premium high-traffic locations, wouldn't that imply that some new vendor would like to grab that location?
If mall owners charge exorbiant rents I would assume more reasonable malls would appear? A huge empty space, like x-Borders, is not only lost revenue for the owner, but I would imagine it having devastating psychological influence on the consumers mall experience. Vendors next to the x-Borders would loose a lot of foot traffic, the dark gaping hole doesn't exactly insipire wild shopping sprees either, does it?
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Well, there's Malls and there's Malls.
Anchor stores are supposed to be the high-traffic draws for the mall.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_store
Depending on the size and design of the mall you can have anywhere from 2 to 7 or more. They are usually the biggest spaces and they tend to be located as far as possible from each other. You might see Sears, J.C. Penny's, Kohl's, Macy's, Nordstrom, or similar regional prestige department stores at most suburban locations. Some regional-draw malls might have "all of the above":
http://en.plazalasamericas.com/directory/mall-map
http://www.mallofamerica.com/shopping/directory
Malls also host big standalone storefronts within the same complex.
In recent times the concept of an "open air" mall has taken hold in some locations, usually upscale suburbs without a defined city center in traditional terms:
http://www.crockerpark.com/general-i...on/retail/map/
The problem with filling an expensive storefront is that most malls have as many as a couple hundred stores under lease and the landlords, much like the BPHs, are concerned about the preserving the value of their floor space. Since leases tend to be multi-year it might make more sense to keep the locale sealed and empty until the economy improves and/or an appropriate tenant can move in than to sub-divide it or lease it at a discount and risk other tenants asking for rent reductions or even worse, starting a rent war among regional mall operators.
A common mall development model is to couple an enclosed Mall with an open air strip mall and several standalone buildings in the same shopping complex, which alows the operator to offer different rent rates within the complex. So the onus is really on the store operator to lease a storefront that fits their business model in terms of size, traffic, and location.