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TOWN CENTER - BOCA RATON                

The Town Center at Boca Raton, Fla., one of the nation's most productive regional malls, is seeking to capitalize further on Florida's rapid growth. Last week, the upscale regional mall, boasting top Bloomingdale's and Saks Fifth Avenue branches among other anchors, added a 90,000-square-foot specialty wing housing 33 stores and a 170,000-square-foot Nordstrom, the chain's first Florida unit.

"This is a very fast-paced market. There's phenomenal growth in the state, especially between Dade County up through Palm Beach and into the central Florida, Tampa and Orlando areas," said Gary Moss, regional vice president for Simon Property Group, which bought the Town Center mall in Boca Raton two years ago. "This is a relatively upscale market. We we see the opportunity to continue to capitalize on it."
 
With Florida's highways lined with malls and strip centers, Moss, when asked if the state was already overstored, replied, "I really don't think so. The key here is because the pie keeps getting bigger, all of these units can support additional retail and additional growth."

Town Center, with its latest additions, has grown to 1.5 million square feet. Of the 33 stores scheduled to open, about 20 opened last week, with the remainder seen opening by Thanksgiving.

"We measure productivity by dollars per square foot of small specialty stores," Moss said, noting that the center will surpass $625 in sales per square foot of selling space this year and should continue to grow.

The national average for malls is $285 a foot, with Town Center falling in the upper 5 percent of the nation's malls.

Moss said that Town Center ranked among Simon Properties' top 10 malls. In the Southeast, the Dadeland mall is Simon's most productive center, with Town Center and Florida Mall in Orlando ranking either second or third.

Simon's top malls in the country are Dadeland and Roosevelt Field, in Garden City, N.Y. Another Simon property, The Forum Shops at Caesar's in Las Vegas, considered a specialty mixed-use center, does around $1,200 in sales per square foot, making it the most productive property in Simon's portfolio.
 
Town Center draws from a radius 20 miles north and 20 miles south and is putting the finishing touches on a mall-wide renovation. Among the new specialty stores are Cole-Haan, Crane & Co., Illuminations, Lucky Brand Dungarees, Chico's and Tommy's Island. Soon to come are J. Jill, Abercrombie & Fitch, Nicole Miller, Lacoste and New Balance. Tenants that have relocated to the expansion wing include Vertigo, The Custom Shop, New Man and Coach.

Besides Bloomingdale's, Saks and Nordstrom, other anchors in the mall are Burdines, Lord & Taylor and Sears. Reportedly, Macy's and Neiman's have expressed interest in moving in as well. Moss acknowledged it's possible that another anchor move in, but declined to specify any possibilities.

Town Center was built in 1980. The remodeling entails new floors, ceilings, entrances, signage, landscaping, a redesigned food court and additional valet parking.

MIZNER PARK                      

The words "run down" and "blighted" usually don't conjure up images of up-scale Boca Raton. But that is exactly what the city's downtown core faced in the mid-1980s.

The newly opened Town Center Mall on Glades Road west of 1-95 was doing for downtown merchants what had happened, or was about to happen, in downtown cores across the nation: suburban shopping was drawing customers away.

The city admitted there was a problem. It looked at the nearly empty Boca Baton Mall at Northeast Street aid Federal Highway and formed a Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) to fix the problem.

The Urban Land Institute; a Washington, D.C., think tank that brings together public and private entities to make the best use of land, said in a research study of the area that the then-current use wasn't viable.

"The 30-acre site is a failing 15-year-old, 420,000-square-foot regional shopping center called Boca Raton Mall," the study said. "Laid out in a dumbbell configuration with two anchors, this center was suffering from very high vacancy rates."

The CRA, established in 1980, provided the impetus for the project, uniting business leaders, private citizens, and cultural groups in creating a master plan for downtown revitalization. The CRA later designated the site and its vicinity as blighted and engaged in a redevelopment plan for the entire area.

The first steps that the agency took toward redevelopment were to approve a $50 million program to update downtown infrastructure and to obtain state approval for a downtown-wide development of regional impact plan in 1986.

After inviting input from numerous consultants, the CRA recommended in 1987 that the city council seek to redevelop the Boca Baton Mall and replace it with a mixed-use complex.

Crocker & Company, aware of the CRA's desire to redevelop the site, bought the mall site in June 1988 with the intention of either renovating and repositioning the mall, redeveloping the site on Crocker's own terms, or potentially working with the city on a redevelopment plan. That's where the unique plan that was to become Mizner Park took shape. Palm Beach Escorts

Crocker brought in Cooper, Carry & Associates, a Washington, D.C., architectural firm, to design the project. Richard Heapes was the architect assigned to the project. His design was radical.

"The city was saying, 'give us a center that will bring people back,' but it also wanted a cultural park, Heapes said. His design created instead a new main street, now Plaza Real. But it also created a new form of mixed-use development.

The side of the park that fronted Federal Highway would have no retail signage. Only people walking through the center, on Plaza Real, would be able to see the names of the stores. "That meant the national chains were skittish about coming," he said, "so we had to rely on smaller boutiques."

In addition to space for offices on the two levels above the shops, Heapes proposed something even more radical -- rental apartments.

"We did it not because it was our first choice, but because there wasn't very much financing for hotels at that point," Heapes said.

George Chronopoulos, manager of the Bavarian Colony Restaurant at Mizner Park, said that addition is his bread and butter.

"We get a lot of our business from the people who live here," he said. Chronopoulos said the clientele is definitely upscale. Bavarian has just changed its name to Levy's in the Park. Palm Beach Escorts
 
In mid-January 1991, the project opened. Crocker's financial partner in the deal was Teachers Insurance & Annuity, and the project was entirely financed with equity. Palm Beach Escorts

Unlike many redevelopment projects, which are phased in over several years, all of Mizner Park's major components came on line at the same time -- with one exception. The cultural component wasn't there. The city, which started out with an idea for a cultural center, instead had one of the most unique mixed-use commercial sites in the country.

"There have only been a half a dozen cities that have actually copied what we did," Heapes said. Many of those cities are the result of a company he formed since leaving Cooper Carry -- aptly named Street Works.

KEY ADVANTAGES:
Trisha Riggs, a spokeswoman for the Urban Land Institute, said their analysis showed that almost everything about Mizner Park was groundbreaking.

"The central space for the project contains two public streets designed with pavers and plaza details to provide vehicular access, over-the-curb parking, and pedestrian access," she said. "In this way, the needed circulation elements are combined with open space amenities, furthering the traditional Main Street atmosphere.

One of the key advantages of the park's being surrounded by two streets is that this configuration affords ample on-street parking in front of the stores and restaurants, as cars can be parked on both sides of both streets."

The design seemed to work. According to ULI, "The project's retail component (44 spaces) was more than 90 percent leased before the grand opening."

It wasn't long before the institute wrote a special report on Mizner Park. It said, "Using a neotraditional town-center design was a risky approach, as it broke numerous rules for individual uses.

In defiance of conventional wisdom, the retail faces inward, with no visibility from the adjacent arterial; the residential component lacks a swimming pool and is located above the retail stores; and the office space has no separate or monumentally distinct identity.

"However, the project proves the theorem that a well-conceived mixed-use project can amount to more than the sum of its parts. The sense of place that has been created helps the project overcome the downside risks of its novel approach, and the result is a pleasantly surprising impression on most users-tenants and visitors alike."

Heapes said tenants may come and go, but the main street "will be there 200 years from now."
Jo Ann Root, marketing director for Codina Realty Services, which now runs the leasing at Mizner Park, said rates per square foot have doubled since the center opened, from $26 to $52. Office space is now about $19 a square foot, compared to $16 a decade ago.

Heapes said Mizner Park now faces a crossroads. Many of the 10-year leases are coming up. He questioned whether Codina will now try to attract larger tenants. Root said they will change the mix, but only slightly. Palm Beach Escorts

"Codina's goal is changing the mix as leases expire as evidenced by the addition of Ann Taylor Loft and Tommy Bahama as well as Douglas Cosmetics," she said.
Mizner Park is still getting attention. The Sierra Club recognized the center as an example of smart growth. Palm Beach Escorts

Alan Farago, who watches sprawl for the Florida chapter, said the way Mizner Park was developed shows "we don't have to settle for sprawl."