Friday, Nov. 25, 2005 | 7:42 a.m.
The race is on to see who can build a new mall first.
At the starting line are seven contenders, each with their own ideas and plans.
But is the Las Vegas Valley, which already has more than seven malls of various shapes, sizes and price points, ready for any more?
The answer, across the board, is "Yes."
The question that remains: Can they all succeed?
Maybe.
"A significant number of these (being built) is unlikely," said Brian Gordon, a principal at Applied Analysis.
The planned malls reach all corners of the Las Vegas Valley, from the southwest and northwest to North Las Vegas and in between.
"Most of the markets similar in size to Las Vegas, similar in population, (have) many more regional shopping centers than Las Vegas does," said Patrick Done, president of Olympia Development, which is planning a mall in southwest Las Vegas.
"As fast as the market is growing, there is room for more retail projects, primarily to the south and north of the city."
Jim Stuart, another developer who with his business partner Kenny Sullivan and Florida-based Turnberry Associates, is building Town Square at Interstate 215 and Las Vegas Boulevard, also believes there is room for more regional retail centers.
"There's certainly room in the market for retail of regional significance; Town Square being among them," he said. "The northwest will be the next location to come out of the ground. It's a race at this point to see who gets the most relevant tenants."
The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), a global retail trade organization, defines a mall as typically enclosed, generally 400,000 square feet or more and typically two or more anchors, one of which is usually a full-line department store.
There are about 1,100 malls nationwide, ICSC estimates, and new mall growth has been constrained over the last decade. Nationwide new mall openings per year have not made it into double digits since 1993.
"If you went back 20 years ago, there were maybe 20 new regional malls opening every year, and now it's down to less than five a year across the country," said John Chapman, principal of Virginia-based Chapman Consulting Part, a company that specializes in market analysis for retail stores, regional malls and lifestyle centers.
The idea of what a mall should look like is being challenged throughout the country, as traditional enclosed malls have been struggling to adapt with the emergence of the trendy open-air retail centers, often called lifestyle centers, and with the consolidation of the department store industry.
Historically, the pace of development for enclosed regional malls has been governed by the department stores, Chapman said.
"They didn't want to cannibalize sales from existing stores. They were the governors, so to say, of when malls got built," he said. "Department stores have declined in importance, but smaller retailers still want to open stores, which has fueled these other centers."
In Las Vegas that trend is evident. Of the seven malls that are planned, only one is on the drawing boards as an enclosed mall.
Great Mall
The Great Mall of Las Vegas, being developed by Triple Five Nevada, hopes to have a mall totaling 1.5 million square feet of retail open in the northwest Las Vegas Valley as early as 2008. The mall is slated for the northwest corner of U.S. 95 and Interstate 215.
If built, the mall would be similar to Triple Five's famous Mall of America near Minneapolis and the world's largest mall, a Triple Five property in Edmonton, Alberta.
"We are thinking of adding office and condos," said Jean Marc Joveidi, Triple Five senior executive vice president. "We have the department stores lined up and a movie theater."
Triple Five indicated at the ICSC convention this spring that Dillards, J.C. Penney, Sears, Robinsons-May and Regal Cinemas would be tenants at the Great Mall of Las Vegas.
Summerlin Centre
About 14 miles south of the planned Great Mall of Las Vegas is another planned mall -- General Growth's Summerlin Centre, at Interstate 215 and Sahara Avenue in Summerlin.
Summerlin Centre mall has continued to stall since it was first announced in 1997.
Completion of the western leg of the Las Vegas Beltway, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the redevelopment of Fashion Show (owned by the Rouse Co., former owner of Howard Hughes Corp., now owned by General Growth), and simply waiting for the area to mature are all reasons for the delays.
With General Growth now at the helm, the proposed Summerlin mall is now getting the attention that it deserves, Tom Warden, Hughes spokesman, said at a recent presentation.
"General Growth is at the front end designing the regional retail center at Summerlin Centre," he said.
The plans call for a mall that most likely will not be enclosed, but may have portions enclosed under one roof, Warden said. The retail will be accessible from east/west streets and will feature a pedestrian promenade.
Warden said the 1 million-square-foot regional mall will pull from some of the best demographics in the valley.
Warden was mum on what retailers are to go into the mall, but in the past, department stores Dillards, Robinsons-May, Macy's and Lord & Taylor were named as anchor tenants. But it is unlikely that Lord & Taylor, after backing out of a deal to occupy space at the Fashion Show, will have a presence at the Summerlin mall.
South Valley Opportunities
One area that many industry professionals have their eye on is the southwest portion of the valley, where communities have boomed and retail is scrambling to catch up.
"One area that is really lacking a mall is the southwest," Gordon, with Applied Analysis said. "It will be interesting to see if something develops in the southwest."
On the drawing boards is a large regional retail center planned by the Olympia Group, a company that among other things, developed the master-planned community of Southern Highlands and is working on developing a casino on Las Vegas Boulevard South in that area.
The expected size of the mall is between 800,000 square feet to 1 million square feet, Done, Olympia Development president, said.
The mall would most likely be open air with some anchor tenants, he said.
Gordon said land and location is key to developing a mall.
"There aren't many large parcels that are suitable for that type of development," he said. " It has to be the right site with the right demographics."
Stuart thinks his Town Center will be successful because of it's location at what has been called the crosshairs of the Las Vegas community, I-15 and I-215. Town Square also is situated on Las Vegas Boulevard, so not only is it expected to draw shoppers from the valley's residents, but the 37 million tourists that visit each year as well.
Construction work has begun on the site and Stuart expects the Town Square to open second quarter 2007.
Of the 1.7 million square feet of space at Town Square, 250,000 square feet will be dedicated to offices. Town Square has been designed to be an open air, pedestrian-friendly shopping center.
There will be a 230-room hotel along with a 20-screen movie theater, bowling center, 20 different restaurants and more than 100 retail shops.
Town Square will be geared toward families and will not have any gaming on the site, Stuart said. A children's park is planned, and developers are in negotiations to relocate the Lied Discovery Children's Museum to the site.
Also planned for the bustling Strip area is East Village, at the northwest corner of Tropicana Avenue and Paradise Road.
The 44-acre project is slated for 700,000 square feet of retail, entertainment, banquet and meeting space along with 250,000 square feet of office space. It too would be built in an open-air, urban-lifestyle center.
East Village Partners is the developer; Mark Advent, Mark Vlassopulos and Stephen Chen are majority stockholders in the company.
North Las Vegas Competition
North Las Vegas has long been an area ignored by developers, but now two different groups are hoping that the area is ready for a regional retail center.
Michigan-based Nelson Ventures and the Mendenhall Family Trust, which owns the 150-acre site at the southeast corner of Craig Road and North 5th Street in North Las Vegas, have plans to build a 1.5 million square foot retail center.
The center most likely would be a cross between one of the valley's large retail "power centers," the District in Green Valley Ranch, and a traditional mall, said George Garcia, a representative for the group.
"We haven't finalized anything at this point, but we're moving as quickly as we can," he said.
The North 5th site is about 10 miles from the planned Great Mall of Las Vegas in the northwest and is 3.5 miles from another planned North Las Vegas mall.
Northview, at the northwest corner of Centennial Parkway and Losee Road is a 120-acre retail project by Blizzard Asset Management, owned by Jack Binion.
Bob Gronauer, attorney for Blizzard Asset Management, said the project will be open air and have 1.7 million square feet of stores, offices and restaurants. A movie theater is planned for the site as well as a hotel. Also being proposed are condos on top of commercial tenants.
"We are planning, and the developers we've talked to, are excited about doing a mall concept," he said.
Gronauer said the company is in discussions with "several mall developers" that are interested in the site.
"This is centrally located between the more mature North Las Vegas and the future development of all the BLM land to the north of us, and currently in this area there are thousands of homes being constructed," he said.
Gronauer said Blizzard Asset Management would like to have the mall built in three to five years.
Both North Las Vegas projects have gone through the approval process, and it's yet to be seen if they, along with the other proposed projects, will ever get built.
Garcia said the valley can support more regional retail centers, including the three proposed in the north part of the valley.
"There's no question," he said. "(The projects can be supported) by distance and marketing niche. I don't think there's any question the area can support all three."
Jennifer Shubinksi can be reached at
or at [email protected].
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