Retail
NEWIRE Tour of Chestnut Hill Square
Here are some photos of the recent NEWiRE tour of the Chestnut Hill Square project we’re working on for New England Development. As a member of the project team for a couple of years now, I enjoyed hearing from NED’s Doug Karp about the project, and hearing feedback from attendees about the project’s design. And we even received a reward for attending – the retailers contributed to amazing gift bags, Wegmans provided beverages and light appetizers, and the evening was capped off at neighboring Capital Grille. Some of the stores are open now, with more opening this month and Wegman’s scheduled to open next spring (2014).
Freeport Village
Happy Thanksgiving and Black Friday!
Freeport Maine has long called itself the outlet shopping capital of New England. LL Bean’s Flagship store has anchored the town for over 100 years, and the shoe store Cole Haan was built into an international success from its humble beginnings by its CEO, George Denney, a Freeport native and lifelong resident…
NEWiRE Tour of Chestnut Hill
I’ll be helping lead a project spotlight tour tonight of Chestnut Hill Square with NEWiRE. The event details are below; I hope to see you there…
Brooklyn Boulders Grand Opening
We’re so happy to join Brooklyn Boulders at the Grand Opening of their new rock climbing gym tonight. The 38,000-square-foot gym has 45-foot tall climbing walls (the largest bouldering walls in the Northeast!), yoga, weights, treadmills, and copious ways to join in the fun – from kid’s programs to climbing classes to commercial incubator space for business start-ups…
Shades of Green
What do you do when your grocery business generates 55,000 tons of food waste every year – the leftovers from the store aisles that aren’t either sold or donated? If you’re Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the U.S., you build an anaerobic digester to convert all that food to usable energy.
Green Cooperation: Speaking on the Boston SCT Panel
ICSC and Shopping Centers Today magazine are starting a new series of short retail conferences, called SCT Live, to be held in targeted regions throughout the country. They just announced the programs, which start this month. I will be one of the panelists on the program in Boston in November on the topic of how retailers and shopping center owners can partner to create more sustainable facilities, entitled “Green Cooperation.” For more information, see below or go to the website: www.icsc.org/sctlive…
Scala Shopping Center
Arrowstreet designed a new shopping center in the Cumbayá district of Quito. Scala consists over 170 shops and restaurants wrapped around a beautiful open-air plaza, effectively turning the mall “inside out” to create a vibrant, active shopping experience. High-end finishes and details appeal to both sought-after tenants and visitors. As part of the development’s commitment to sustainability, the shopping center features an energy-saving passive ventilation system and over 90,000 square feet of vertical gardens.
Designed in partnership with local architect Marco Coello.
ICSC Real Estate Convention in Las Vegas
Arrowstreet has attended the annual International Council of Shopping Centers Real Estate Convention (RECon) for over 20 years. With all of the major shopping center developers, real estate brokers and retailers present, the convention is THE place to be for anybody in retail real estate development. Some years, more than 40,000 people descend upon Las Vegas to plan projects, broker deals, and network. This year, the convention ran from May 19 through May 22. We were there and the mood in the convention hall was enthusiastic…
LEED Goes Shopping
Our LEED Certification portfolio is full of retail projects, but one retail building type has been elusive: the mall in-line store. That is, until this year. With a project on the boards now (sorry, confidential), we have worked out a path to the LEED plaque. Getting LEED certification for a retail store in a mall setting can be difficult. If…
Reach for the Stars
It’s been a long time since I saw “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” the German expressionist movie from 1920, but I’ll never forget the strange stage sets with their outlandish, angled buildings and furniture. Walls curve up, doors and windows are turned, and no two lines are parallel. The performers dance more than they walk, swinging their arms with emphasis and force.
On a recent site visit to the Somerville Brooklyn Boulders rock climbing gym, I snapped some photos as I usually do. When I returned to the office, I was struck by these two photos. The curving walls, mix of textures, angular light, and the construction machinery all mix together to bring back memories of Dr. Caligari’s set. Of course, that’s where the similarity ends. The movie is about a sleepwalker. I assure you that nobody will be sleepwalking in this facility when it’s open!