Hybrid mall/strip center struggled on the weight of vacant mall space and unrecouped expenses.
Action:
Langley Properties Company acquired the property with a plan to convert the entire mall into one large anchor.
Result:
The property became the premier shopping and entertainment destination in the area. Subsequently, rents more than double over a ten-year period.
The Mall at Lexington Green, a 168,177-sf upscale retail and entertainment center, is a notable example of the company’s ability to see the potential of a distressed property and harness its potential. The mall had great potential for success, with approximately 80,000 vehicles per day on Nicholasville Road, excellent visibility and adequate ingress/egress. In spite of the center’s exceptional location, the hybrid mall/strip specialty center was languishing with 16-percent vacancy for the entire center and 80-percent vacancy for the mall.
Much of the center’s problems were associated with the “mall” component of the center. The few retailers that were located in the space were failing due to the mall’s lack of foot traffic, and the mall did not have a central anchor to draw in customers. To compound the problems to the property owner, the exterior tenants were not responsible for the CAM associated with the 27,000-SF of common area in the mall.
Another challenge for the center was the lack of foot traffic to exterior inline tenants, due to the design of the center that funneled shoppers directly to anchor Joseph-Beth Booksellers at a remote end of the center. The result was significant dead zones throughout the shopping area.
Prior to acquiring the center, Langley Properties Company developed a plan to revitalize the shopping space, converting 27,000 sf of common area and vacant mall space into a large, central anchor location. Joseph-Beth, seeking to expand their operations, elected to relocate to the larger space from their current 21,975-sf location.
