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Your friendly neighborhood mall Lifestyle centers blend Main Street feel with modern convenience and store choice BYLINE: SANDRA ECKSTEIN Karrine Morgan and her two daughters were enjoying the opening of a new shopping center near their Kennesaw home earlier this month. But it wasn't your usual strip shopping center anchored to a Wal-Mart or Target, with the accompanying hair salon, card shop and drugstore. This kind of center has shoppers excited and mall owners paying attention. They're called lifestyle centers, mimicking old- time Main Streets but featuring a collection of specialty high-end stores, the kind that often call malls home. "I like that I can get to these kinds of stores in five minutes instead of the 20 or more that it takes to get to a mall," said Morgan as her girls, Karris, 4, and Karre, 2, played in Bombay Kids. Morgan's new find is The Avenue West Cobb in Marietta, which boasts stores like Ann Taylor Loft, Coldwater Creek, Liz Claiborne Shoes, American Eagle Outfitters and Talbots. It's the fourth such lifestyle center in the metro area. Three of the centers, The Avenue East Cobb, TheAvenue West Cobb and The Avenue Peachtree City, are owned by Cousins Properties Inc. The fourth, The Forum on PeachtreeParkway, is in Norcross and is owned by Thomas Enterprises Inc. And developers say more are on the way. Lifestyle centers first appeared about 10 years ago, according to Steven Greenberg, owner of a real estate advisory company for specialty retailers. The first one appeared here in 1999. Greenberg said they've picked up speed because they can be built closer to shoppers in densely populated areas, with stores tailored to the area. "It takes 100 acres to build a regional mall, but only 10 to 15 acres to put in a lifestyle center," said Greenberg, of the Greenberg Group in Hewlett, N.Y. In fact, part of their charm is their smaller size. Greenberg said successful lifestyle centers don't have more than 35 or 40 stores, compared with malls with 100 to 150 stores, plusanchors. The centers are usually built in a convenient shape -- a "U" or square -- with sidewalks, streetlights, fountains and lots of greenery to give people a "Main Street" feel. That's the look Cousins goes for at its shopping centers. "We have different kinds of architecture on the storefronts because it makes it look almost like a downtown, like the buildings were built at different times," said Joel T. Murphy, president of the retail division for Cousins. "We're looking for the feeling of Main Street, but the difference is, there's nowhere to park on Main Street." Parking at lifestyle centers tends to be in the middle, so people can park in front of their favorite store but still close to the others. At the Avenue West Cobb, no store is more than 170 feet from a parking spot, a distance that was intensively researched withconsumers. The shopping center has paved sidewalks, three fountains, bronze statues of children playing and larger trees for an established look. To illustrate the extent Cousins goes for "the look," Murphy said the company tried dozens of bricks for the walkways, but all of them looked too new. Finally a handmade brick, tumbled in a cement mixer to make it look old, was chosen. For people attending the center's grand opening last weekend, it seemed to have worked. "I love the open, comfortable feel here," said Tara Roberts, who was checking out the stores with daughter, Shannon, 3. "It just seems more friendly." Misty Insel of Hiram, pushing daughter Noah Anne, 1, in a stroller, liked the layout. "You can just drive up and park near the store you want to go to, but at a mall, you have to walk all over to get to different stores," Insel said. "That's not easy with kids." Those kinds of sentiments are getting the attention of mall owners, and many are incorporating elements of lifestyle centers in new construction or remodelings. John Bucksbaum, chief executive officer of a firm that owns or manages 163 malls in 39 states, said his company has included elements of lifestyle centers -- outdoor dining areas and stores that are entered from the outside of the mall -- in its last 20 mall redevelopment projects. General Growth Properties of Chicago owns or manages North Point Mall, Cumberland Mall, South Lake Mall, North DeKalb Mall and Shannon Mallin the Atlanta area. "Lifestyle centers are filling in some niches where malls have not been able to go," said Michael P. McCarty of Simon Properties Group. McCarty said the centers are built in densely populated areas with higher-income residents. But he said he doesn't see lifestyle centers as a threat to malls, simply as an alternative. Some of the usual mall retailers, however, are testing the lifestyle centers' water. Cousins' Murphy said retailers are attracted by rents that often are 35 percent to 40 percent less than in malls, but still generate comparable sales per square foot. The average shopper spends about an hour per visit at a lifestyle center, according to a survey by the International Council of Shopping Centers, nearly 20 minutes less than the average mall visit. But they spend almost the same amount per trip, about $76, the study found. Shoppers say that's because they can be more focused at the lifestyle centers and get to the stores they like more quickly. "This will be convenient for Christmas shopping," said Dot Hardy of Marietta, who was checking out the new west Cobb center with her husband, Sam. "It's closer to home, and the traffic won't be so bad. Pam Burg of Dallas said she'll definitely cut down on her trips to Town Center now that she's discovered Avenue West Cobb. "I really like the setup, and I like being outside like this," she said.
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