This program will demonstrate how proven principles of retail development can be combined with the best practices of New Urbanism, Smart Growth, and architectural design to create successful and competitive mixed-use urban commercial centers. Ideal for developers, planners, retailers, architects, and public officials, the program will focus on several topics, among them the required market demographics for various retailers, restaurants, and shopping center typologies including convenience centers, neighborhood centers, power centers, regional malls, and lifestyle centers. The impact of consumer psychographics and techniques for creating place-based brands will also be presented.
Instructors will focus on the actual nuts and bolts of how to program, plan, and design sustainable retail in historic downtowns, underperforming shopping centers, and new ground-up developments as well as repairing failed suburban centers. The course will cover market research, branding, national retailer criteria, and site-selection principles. Participants will learn about streetscape, store planning, signage, tenant mix, merchandising plans, leasing, anchors' roles and successful new urban planning techniques, design criteria, parking, building, site planning, and developer requirements. The course will also review the synergy among residential, office, civic, and governmental land uses and retailer performance.
A special section will focus on gaining retail market share and attracting leading retailers into historic downtowns and older shopping centers. In this two-day program, the instructors will demonstrate how site planning, site selection, detailed storefront design, merchandising, and branding principles can make a commercial center and retailer more competitive. The program will also review lessons learned from dozens of leading town centers and suburban retrofits.
New features include:
- A consideration of recession lessons and opportunities;
- An overview of university and medical center opportunities;
- Tips on buying low and selling high;
- A look at hot tenants for 2010.
Learning Objectives:
- Explore planning and design techniques for revitalizing historic town centers and building new mixed-use town (lifestyle) centers.
- Review the rise and fall of American cities as regional shopping destinations.
- Apply nuts and bolts techniques for increasing retail sales through streetscape, parking, signage, and pedestrian movements.
- Examine a successful New Urbanist model for integrating retail into existing historic downtowns, new developments, and suburban retrofits.
- Gain an insider's understanding of leading retailers and department store business models and site selection criteria.
