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Transforming Shopping Malls Into 21st Century Neighborhoods

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The death of the 20th century shopping mall is evident all across the country, and the data bears out this assertion.

Coresight Research estimates that 25% of the nation’s roughly 1,000 existing malls will close over the next three to five years, with the pandemic accelerating a demise that was already underway.

Inherent in the collapse of this antiquated shopping mall typology is a massive opportunity to redefine the paradigm of how we create sustainable and equitable suburban environments to live, work, learn, and yes, shop. As we reimagine sites of this scale, taking the right steps is essential: identify the opportunity, implement the catalyst, lead with a long-term framework and a shared vision, and look to the future.

The Opportunity

In the San Francisco Bay Area, according to the “Mall and Office Transformation Guide” by Perkins&Will for the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), malls and business parks account for more than 9,000 acres of underutilized property across the region. With the State of California encouraging housing development in commercial zones, these projects are prime opportunities for alleviating the housing crisis. Many of these declining malls are ideal redevelopment sites—on average 20-60 acres, covered in surface parking lots, and located in priority development areas with good access to transit.

On the other hand, these sites can be overwhelming for local jurisdictions, who have never engaged in this type or scale of project; and for developers, as buying a mall is not a typical real estate transaction.  Rarely are mall properties owned by a singular entity and they come with handfuls of long-term lease agreements with retailers. A significant number of these old sites face environmental challenges.

Mall transformations across the country that are well on their way to their next life and purpose, bring up important questions: What is the right long-term development framework to ensure the optimal mix and intensity of uses and significant public benefit, and what is the catalyst that will springboard an underutilized site into a thriving new neighborhood?

The Catalyst

So where do you begin? Do you choose adaptive re-use, infusing new life into existing big-box structures, or choose new development? Both are viable, but contingent upon market realities and the desired land use. Housing development to address the national deficit is one worthy starting point. Still, catalysts can also be public institutions such as community college facilities or hospitals and healthcare facilities to support greater social infrastructure.

The University of Rochester Medical Center opened its outpatient campus in an empty Sears department store—infusing new life into the abandoned structure. (Rendering Credit: Perkins&Will)

New healthcare facilities are critical infrastructure for anchoring a new resilient neighborhood, especially when it brings those services into previously underserved regions. The University of Rochester Medical Center opened its outpatient campus Orthopedics and Physical Performance Center in an empty Sears big box department store. Once complete, it will be one of the largest outpatient orthopedic facilities in the Northeast.

The design team brought daylight into the existing footprint through a series of skylights. An internal courtyard also functions as a rehabilitation space. (Rendering Credit: Perkins&Will)

Similarly, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at RedBird in Southern Dallas is also a renovation of a former Sears big box in an underserved community. RedBird is now UT Southwestern’s largest outpatient location beyond their main campus.

The Long-Term Development Framework

A catalytic anchor needs to be complemented by a long-term development framework to ensure phased, sustainable growth and investment. A public-private partnership between Austin Community College and Red Leaf Properties led to the redevelopment of the 81-acre former Highland Mall near a working-class and immigrant neighborhood in Austin, Texas into Highland ATX, an innovative learning center and new mixed-income, transit-oriented community.

Austin Community College (ACC) was attracted by the big box structures and acquired the properties in 2010 to repurpose the spaces as a centralized location for their specialty programs, filling a need for state-of-the-art training for the region’s most in-demand jobs.

While ACC was able to infuse new life into the abandoned big box structures for their new campus, Red Leaf Properties was interested in converting the vast empty surface parking lots into mixed-use development. Red Leaf sought input from the surrounding neighborhoods and student community on the types of shops, services and amenities that would be included in the new mixed-use development surrounding the campus. Today the area boasts 1200 new residential units, new transit service, shops and services for everyday life, a 1.25 mile trail and three new parks.

The development framework balances an emphasis on community benefit with the necessary flexibility that developers need in the market. This framework sets the community’s vision, establishes the right mix of land uses, and makes sure the project delivers the right community amenities such as a multi-modal transportation network and an inclusive, experience-rich public realm.

Leading With A Shared Vision

Partnerships, like the one between ACC and Red Leaf Properties, are essential to carrying out a vision for these large and complex projects. What otherwise may have ended up as a bidding war, ultimately became a productive collaboration and serves as a national model for economic development. However, it’s critical to expand these formal partnerships to a wide and diverse cross-section of the community, with a priority to engage community members that have historically been left out and disproportionately impacted by racism, disinvestment, and displacement. With an emphasis on creating an equitable engagement process and development, project representatives can enlist a variety of community leaders who can draw input from, and speak on behalf of, the groups they represent and ensure that these communities are ultimately recipients of this new investment and opportunity.

The Future of Shopping Malls

Shopping malls were once the quintessential suburban community anchor. Now these sites represent an opportunity to re-define post-pandemic suburban environments and re-engage with where the majority of Americans actually live (and likely will continue to live). The future of the suburban fabric can become a more holistic environment that addresses the IPCC’s climate sustainability goals, provides greater access to affordable housing, healthcare, and workforce development, and fosters more close-knit, resilient communities.

 

Source: Building Design + Construction

Children’s Health And UT Southwestern Plan New $2.5 Billion Dallas Pediatric Medical Campus

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Children’s Health and UT Southwestern Medical Center are in the planning stages of a new pediatric campus in Dallas.

The two entities estimated a $1.6 billion construction budget and a total project cost of $2.5 billion, according to original solicitation documents obtained by D CEO Magazine. (The project was first reported last year by the website Strategic Partnerships Inc., which follows large procurement projects across the country.)

The hospitals released the solicitation documents seeking contractors in January 2022 and had a goal of completing the project by 2028, according to the original solicitation.

“The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Health System of Texas, on behalf of the Joint Pediatric Enterprise, are soliciting statements of qualifications for selection of an Architect/Engineer firm for the New Pediatric Campus,” the executive summary reads.

The documents describe a new pediatric hospital with 532 beds, an emergency department with 90 bays, more than 90 newborn intensive care unit beds, and services to support a new labor and delivery program with approximately 30 beds. Neither health system responded to an email requesting confirmation of those specifics. Because the project is in its early stages, the specs are likely to change. The existing Dallas main campus has 490 beds.

In an internal email to UT Southwestern staff last fall, President Dr. Daniel Podolsky mentioned the new campus among other developments in the works at UTSW.

Dr. Podolsky wrote: “The planning for the new pediatric campus will accelerate as our joint pediatric experience enables our two organizations to work together to provide care to children and support their families. The new hospital and expanded ambulatory services will advance our pediatric care strategic plans and strengthen our longstanding partnership with Children’s.”

An agreement with a vendor was supposed to have been executed last May, and an 18-month planning and design process was set to commence last June. According to the UT Southwestern supplier bid portal, that RFQ has been awarded. A UT Southwestern spokesman did not respond to an email requesting comment on “design and other related services for a new children’s hospital in Dallas” on Monday.

Children’s Health and UTSW released a joint statemen that read: “Our joint pediatric enterprise is always pursuing opportunities to bolster capacity to provide care in response to record population growth and demand for pediatric specialty services in North Texas. To meet these needs, we are exploring a possible new pediatric campus. Specific details on a project of this magnitude are not final, or approved, and may not be for some time. We look forward to sharing accurate, finalized, information with the community if it is approved by both our institutions and associated boards.”

According to the original timeline in the documents, “schematic design documents” were supposed to be presented to the Board of Regents for approval next month. Final “design development documents” were to be submitted to the regents in August, and construction was originally planned to begin next year. A new timeline for the project was not immediately available.

The original solicitation documents also say that the new facility is set to replace all the services offered in the current hospital and bring services from other facilities to the new campus. The project description included plans for a new master plan for the campus, an administrative building for clinical and support staff, an ambulatory care facility with 250 exam rooms, a utility plant to support the campus, at least one parking garage with 6,500 spaces, and other infrastructure elements. Whether these details make it into the final plans is yet to be determined.

Children’s Health was founded in 1913, growing and expanding into its location in 1967 with 130 beds. In 2008, Children’s approved the construction of a campus in Plano, which now has 72 beds. In 2014, the organization rebranded to Children’s Health. It currently serves 800,000 visits annually.

The hospital is unlikely to be built in the exact location of the existing campus to avoid any interruptions in service, but the joint venture with UTSW makes the new site likely to be located somewhere in the Medical District. The area has several open spaces, especially north of the current campus near Inwood Boulevard and Harry Hines Boulevard. Final design plans have not yet been approved.

The Medical District has been bustling with construction projects. In December, the state broke ground on a new psychiatric hospital across the street from the Children’s Health Dallas. The project received $282.5 million from the state, and Children’s Health donated $200 million to support a pediatric psychiatric wing. It will have 296 beds, with 96 reserved for children. That state hospital is set to finish construction in 2025.

A Texas Public Information Act request to review documents related to the new pediatric hospital submitted has yet to be fulfilled by UT Southwestern.

 

Source: D CEO Magazine