Southdale Shopping Center

Sarasota company helps to redefine concept of malls

But in a larger sense, the renovation of Randhurst Mall -- which opened in the inner-ring Chicago suburb of Mount Prospect, Ill., in 1962 -- also could signal the end of a retail era that began 50 years ago.

That was when Victor Gruen, a Viennese immigrant with a socialist bent, unveiled Southdale Mall in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina. He eventually became the father of the modern enclosed mall.

Now, after a long period of decline, Randhurst is undergoing an overhaul that involves demolishing most of the original center and replacing it with an open-air street of shops and additional anchor tenants.

"Our approach is to look for good real estate that has the wrong real estate product, and that's often the case with 40-year-old malls," said Brett Hutchens, president and chief executive of Casto Lifestyle Properties.

In Florida, Casto is best known for developing the Whole Foods Market Centre and One Hundred Central condominium tower in downtown Sarasota; the Main Street at Lakewood Ranch; Lakeside Village in Lakeland; and Winter Park Village, in Winter Park. In addition to Randhurst, the company also has partnered with giant New York investment house JP Morgan Asset Management to build or rehabilitate retail centers in Cincinnati, Ohio; Raleigh, N.C.; and Charlotte, N.C.

Randhurst's anchors will include an AMC multiplex and a 120-room Hampton Inn and Suites hotel. In addition, the shopping street will include about 22,000 square feet of rentable second-floor office space.

Gruen's first creation at Southdale Mall consisted of two department stores at either end of an enclosed two-level retail arcade with a large public "garden court" with plantings, sculpture, a fishpond, a cafe and a 21-foot-high aviary.

M. Jeffrey Hardwick, Gruen's biographer, said Gruen "believed that if you can keep people at the mall, if you entertain them long enough, they'll eventually spend money."

Gruen designed more than 80 malls and shopping centers and defined suburban shopping for the baby boom generation.

Randhurst Mall, built six years after Southdale, included three department stores as well as a garden court with a "floating restaurant" surrounded by 20-foot-tall palm trees. The cost was $21.5 million.

At 1 million square feet, Randhurst was then the largest enclosed shopping mall ever built.

The redeveloped center, which has been renamed Randhurst Village, reverses Gruen's concept while continuing to embrace his notion of shopping malls as community centers.

Square Feet: Historic Illinois Mall Seeks New Life as Main St ...

MOUNT PROSPECT, Ill. — Like many people coming their 50th birthday, the Randhurst Mall is carrying the small work done.

Randhurst, which non-stop in this inner-ring Chicago suburb in 1962, was the initial included in the mailing in the mailing mall in the Chicago area and, for the short period, the largest included in the mailing in the mailing mall in the world. The strange engineer was Victor Gruen, the Viennese newcomer with the revolutionary focussed who, improbably, became the father of the complicated included in the mailing in the mailing mall.

Now, after the prolonged duration of decline, Randhurst is undergoing the $ 190 million renovate which involves demolishing many of the strange core as great as replacing it with an alfresco travel of shops as great as the single some-more anchor tenants. The developer is Casto Lifestyle Properties of Sarasota, Fla.

“Our proceed is to demeanour for great genuine estate which has the wrong genuine estate product as great as that’s mostly the box with 40-year-old malls,” pronounced Brett Hutchens, the boss as great as arch comparison manager of Casto Lifestyle Properties.

The latest anchors embody an AMC multiplex as great as the 120-room Hampton Inn as great as Suites hotel. In addition, the selling travel will embody about 22,000 block feet of rentable second-floor bureau space.

The restoration during Randhurst is an additional pointer of an finish of an epoch in retailing which began in 1956 when Gruen — afterwards in his late 40s after carrying been the store engineer in New York as great as Los Angeles — denounced Southdale Mall in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina.

Southdale consisted of dual dialect stores during possibly finish of an included in the mailing in the mailing two-level sell colonnade with the vast open “garden court” with plantings, sculpture, the fishpond, the cafeteria as great as the 21-foot-high aviary.

M. Jeffrey Hardwick, Gruen’s biographer, pronounced the grassed area justice was senior manager to the architect’s theories about retailing. “He believed which if we can keep people during the mall, if we perform them prolonged enough, they’ll in the destiny outlay money,” Mr. Hardwick said.

Over the march of his prolonged career, Gruen written over 80 malls as great as selling centers, together with Northland as great as Eastland outward of Detroit;  South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Calif.; as great as Cherry Hill Mall in New Jersey. In the process, he tangible suburban selling for the baby bang generation.

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