At first blush, it doesn’t appear that Westfarms Mall will be hard hit by the opening of nearby Blue Back Square in West Hartford Center. So far, retailers and shoppers haven’t abandoned the 1970s enclosed mall for its trendier, lifestyle competitor.
Westfarms Mall’s management reports that it is close to 100 percent leased and that the few vacant spaces are being nabbed by some big retail names, such as Tiffany and Co.
The mall has a few unoccupied spaces, but tenants are lined up for most of them, said Kevin Keenan, the mall’s general manager, who added that an announcement about new tenants will be made in a few weeks.
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Needless Suits
Based on the eight unsuccessful legal challenges filed by Westfarms Mall’s parent company, Taubman Co., during the approval process of Blue Back Square, it is apparent that the mall’s owners worried that Westfarms could become a forgotten older sibling if shoppers and retail tenants flocked to a trendier, mixed-use lifestyle center in West Hartford Center.
They had cause for concern. When enclosed malls were new and trendy some 30 years ago, shoppers abandoned Main Street retailers in droves, resulting in the closure of many downtown shopping centers.
The retail tide has turned. There are no plans to construct a mall similar to Westfarms — itself built in 1974 — nationwide over the next two years. That is a sign that shoppers and developers prefer lifestyle centers, such as Blue Back Square and Evergreen Walk in Manchester, in lieu of traditional, big box malls.
Another sign of the times is the opening of nearly 20 lifestyle centers in 2008, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).
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No Worries
However, real estate brokers aren’t predicting trouble for West Hartford’s traditional mall. Far from it, they say.These two shopping centers are more likely to complement each other than poach shoppers and tenants.
The 235,000 feet of retail space in Blue Back just isn’t enough to draw away a large number of tenants, said Daniel Garofalo, a principal of Newington-based Reno Properties Group. Besides, he said, Blue Back has drawn in the kinds of tenants, such as R.E.I. and Crate & Barrel, that aren’t looking to locate in an enclosed mall anyway.
By comparison, there is 1.5 million square feet at Westfarms Mall.
“They’re going to attract a whole different tenant base,” he said. Everyone in the market gets nervous,
he added, “but the enclosed malls are here for the long haul.”
And as far as shoppers go, the concentration of two destination retail centers within a couple miles of each other is only likely to draw more crowds from outside the area. There are enough shoppers to go around, Garofalo said.
Erin Hershkowitz, spokeswoman for ICSC, said lifestyle centers nationally are different enough to thrive without siphoning off business or tenants from nearby malls. Developers are in love with the lifestyle center idea, she said: With more specialty shops, they tend to draw a more affluent crowd. “But people still certainly go to their malls,” she said.
