<\/p>\n
\n\tAt WS Development, there\u2019s an appetite for reviving overlooked retail properties that have good bones and gilded histories, but suffered over years of vacancy and neglect.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a hard business,\u201d said Samantha David, president of the Chestnut Hill, Mass.-based WS Development, among the nation\u2019s largest private development firms. \u201cPeople sometimes ask me, \u2018There\u2019s that property for sale. Why is nobody buying it?\u2019 If you\u2019ve ever tried to take a vacant shopping center and bring it back to life, it\u2019s basically a very complicated puzzle.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOf the 100-plus properties in the portfolio, she\u2019s eager to discuss three in particular: Hyde Park Village in Tampa purchased in 2013 for $45 million, The Royal Poinciana Plaza in Palm Beach purchased in August 2014 for $22.5 million, and Plaza del Lago in Wilmette, Ill., acquired in 2022 for $58.7 million. All three are decades-old, open-air shopping destinations that have undergone renewal projects and remerchandising. With each, \u201cWe\u2019ve created a new kind of \u2018village center\u2019 bringing together some of the best brands in the world with these extraordinary local businesses, like an old-time town center where people would go every day because they needed to get fabric to sew a dress, or they needed gardening tools. We try to merchandise that way, so you\u2019re getting everything you need at our places.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThese are not large properties, which is why we\u2019re able to keep them special,\u201d said David. \u201cWe don\u2019t have space that we have to fill. We have space that we get to fill with brands that we think will resonate. For us, certainly there will be expensive things as part of our properties, but there will also be the best T-shirt, the best Pilates studio, or the best ice cream cone, and it has nothing to do with how much they cost. It has to do with making sure it\u2019s the best in its category.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe properties are just a slice of WS Development, which was established in 1990 and has evolved into one of the largest privately owned development firms in the country. The company manages and leases 25 million square feet of space, ranging from large urban mixed-use destinations to lifestyle, community and open-air centers, either built from the ground up or purchased. The projects range in size, the largest being the Boston Seaport where 7.6 million square feet of residential, hotel, office, retail, entertainment, civic, cultural space and open public space across 33 acres is being created. And the smallest is Plaza del Lago. An additional 10 million square feet of development is planned.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tHyde Park Village in Tampa, Fla.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tben fink shapiro<\/p>\n
\n\tThe 270,000-square-foot Hyde Park Village, spanning six blocks, dates back to 1905 when the first buildings were constructed. Additional buildings were added in the 1920s. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cYou can still see the beauty of all that historic architecture, even as we\u2019ve continued to restore and refine it,\u201d said David, pointing to the area\u2019s upscale demographics, tree-lined streets and proximity to water. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t ask for a better piece of real estate, but it had effectively been abandoned. It was half empty. Many of the stores were planning to close. A few brands we\u2019ve kept,\u201d such as the Downtown Dogs pet boutique, the Buddy Brew coffee shop, and The Hyppo for gourmet ice pops. They\u2019ll be near to Brunello Cucinelli, Herm\u00e8s and Cartier, which are opening stores there next year, as well as Frame, Hill House Home, Rifle Paper Co. and Shack Yoga + Sculpt, which will open this year. Recently, Ralph Lauren, Zimmermann, Paige, Alice + Olivia and LoveShackFancy cut the ribbon on stores at Hyde Park Village, which presents a mix of luxury and contemporary fashion brands, and local shops for everyday needs. \u201cThe higher we go in terms of elevation of brands, the more we bring in smaller brands as well,\u201d David said.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe 190,000-square-foot Royal Poinciana Plaza, designed in 1957 by renowned architect John Volk in the heart of Palm Beach Island, features lush gardens, palm trees, fountains and two central courtyards. Upcoming openings this fall include Chlo\u00e9, Mira Mikati, Rosie Assoulin and Zimmermann. Bottega Veneta and Dr. Barbara Sturm recently opened, as did Tutta Mare, a family-owned restaurant from Sag Harbor, N.Y. \u201cIt\u2019s Palm Beach Island\u2019s first waterfront restaurant, which is quite crazy there aren\u2019t more,\u201d said David. \u201cAlmost all the waterfront is lined with hotels or homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tA performing arts center that had been abandoned for 20 years was restored and reopened last summer for theater, screenings, concerts and speaking engagements. The center is operated by the Glazer family and was renamed Glazer Hall.<\/p>\n
\n\tPlaza del Lago, built in 1927 on Chicago\u2019s North Shore, is considered the second oldest shopping center in the U.S. \u201cWhen you drive into this property, you see this beautiful Spanish-style architecture, these old buildings,\u201d said David. \u201cWe basically undertook a full restoration project to bring all the buildings up to current code and to make them acceptable for current-day retail. They had these beautiful facades and architecture, but the infrastructure wasn\u2019t there to support it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBrunello Cucinelli and TWP are scheduled to open in early 2027. Diptyque, D\u00f4en and Zimmermann are seen opening this fall, and Herm\u00e8s opened just a month ago. Other openings this year were Marfa Stance, Thom Browne, Peter Millar, Oscar de la Renta, The Henry, Space 519, Pilatesville and Lola + The Boys. Jenni Payne, Rag & Bone, LoveShackFancy and Veronica Beard were part of the first wave of retail openings in 2025, relaunching the center. \u201cThe community has embraced it and has welcomed these stores,\u201d said David. \u201cThe business has been phenomenal right out of the gate. It speaks to this model that we believe so deeply in.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWS Development is close to announcing another property acquisition. \u201cWe\u2019re opportunistic,\u201d David said. \u201cWe don\u2019t buy things to buy them. We buy them when we see opportunities that we believe are extraordinary. We often buy things off market. The Royal Poinciana wasn\u2019t marketed. They weren\u2019t trying to sell it. We often approach people on real estate we love.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe just bought Pittsburgh Station Square, which has an old, beautiful set of buildings with a huge amount of potential\u2026 So those are the kinds of assets we love. We\u2019re slow and steady in redeveloping them. It takes many years to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBut in each of those markets, the thesis is similar \u2014 providing the customer what they need on a daily basis. I think a lot of developers get excited if they can think a customer will be at their place once a month. We really want people once a day. That means you\u2019re creating something that\u2019s actually needed, that it becomes their place.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAsked how she determines who to lease space to, she said: \u201cIt\u2019s truly old-fashioned boots on the ground \u2014 listening and learning. We meet with as many people as we can. We join many Facebook groups. We look at as many Instagram posts as we can. We have as many focus groups as we can. We\u2019re literally in the community trying to soak in much information about what people want. We\u2019ll do surveys. We really try to solicit a lot of feedback. As important, if not more so, is speaking to the brands themselves. The brands know better than we do where they\u2019re resonating and where their customer is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat\u2019s most required in redeveloping and re-leasing properties, she said, is patience. \u201cBecause we\u2019re privately owned, my partners and I have the ability to be patient and to make choices for the long term, both from a tenant mix perspective and an investment perspective. I\u2019ve had so many people, all the big restaurant names, come to me in Palm Beach, looking for the restaurant space where Tutta Mare ultimately opened. There are some big restaurant chains that are extraordinary. We have the Palm Beach Grill here, which is owned and operated by Hillstone. But I wanted a place where the owners would be there, they\u2019d know your name, and take you to your table.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tThe Royal Poinciana Plaza in Palm Beach, Fla.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Royal Poinciana Plaza<\/p>\n
#Breathing #Life #Vintage #Properties<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At WS Development, there\u2019s an appetite for reviving overlooked retail properties that have good bones and gilded histories, but suffered over years of vacancy and neglect. \u201cIt\u2019s a hard business,\u201d… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editors-pick"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}