Shopping center council says landscape changing
Mixed-use development is gaining in popularity
At the International Council of Shopping Centers' Mountain States Idea Exchange, held Thursday at The Depot in Salt Lake City, the changing landscape of retail unfurled in a wave of earthtones and stucco, its visage sharpening and defining itself with each discussion of new projects.
And the picture that emerges is that of . . . well, The Gateway.
"There's been a lot of shifts in people's buying habits, and the way they shop," said Wade Williams, ICSC's state director for Utah, Idaho and Montana. "Sometimes, people are just buying what they need. But other times, they're shopping and doing other things.
"One of the things we're seeing that's changing in the industry is the creation of large shopping districts, where we're going from malls to 'alls.' People want to be able to go to the grocery store, go to dinner and a movie, and get their general merchandise and health and beauty aids at the same time they get their fashion merchandise."
Mixed-use developments are booming, nationally and in Utah, said Williams, who is also The Boyer Co.'s director of retail development.
"Almost every (retail) project we're doing right now has a housing component," he said, pointing to The District in South Jordan as an example.
"Even five or 10 years ago, people would travel three to five miles to the grocery store," he said. "Now, we're finding that they don't even want to go two miles. More and more, people are doing this kind of 'daisy chaining' thing — they're coming from work, picking up the kids from school and needing to do this shopping and that errand. So to have it all together makes it so much easier."
Projects are under way, or have been announced, up and down the Wasatch Front — by Boyer and others. In Utah County, two massive projects were announced: the Terrace at Traverse Mountain, and Sundance Commons in Pleasant Grove. Multiple projects are also under way in South Jordan, and Utahns continue to await details on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' downtown Salt Lake development.
For the short run, however, things look good. This should be a strong year for retail in Utah, said James Wood, director of the University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Research and a keynote speaker at the ICSC event.
"The 2005 numbers are still coming in, but we think we could see as much as a 10 percent increase in retail sales, to $22 billion from $20 billion in 2004," Wood told the Deseret Morning News. "The state is forecasting about a 7 percent increase in 2006, so that's a bit of a slowdown. But part of that is a question of whether we can keep up the pace (seen in 2005). My sense is that it'll be a strong 2006."
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