The Vistas at Park Meadows opens Wednesday, marking the culmination of the mall’s effort to integrate the new outdoor lifestyle trend into its offerings.
The Vistas adds 154,000 square feet of restaurants and retailers to the 1.6 million-square- foot retail complex. The outdoor addition sits squarely where Lord & Taylor used to be. The mall purchased the site in 2004.
“We took what we saw at Aspen Grove and FlatIron (Crossing)’s Village and Park Meadow-ized it,” said Pam Schenck, general manager at Park Meadows.
Outdoor lifestyle centers have been the latest rage among mall developers.
Local examples include 29th Street in Boulder and the Orchard Town Center in Westminster. Broomfield’s FlatIron Crossing, a traditional indoor mall, has an outdoor component called the Village.
Outdoor centers that have sprouted up in the south metro area near Park Meadows include the Southlands in Aurora and Aspen Grove in Littleton. The former Southglenn Mall is being redeveloped into an outdoor center called the Streets at SouthGlenn.
“Shopping centers are no longer a place that you have time to just go and shop,” Schenck said. “We have to create a multitude of experiences — the retail experience, the outdoor experience, the entertainment experience.”
Retail analyst Brit Beemer is skeptical about combining an outdoor lifestyle center with a traditional indoor mall because it does not create a “downtown” or “village” experience.
“What makes the lifestyle centers, as I look at them, is the quaintness and the serenity and the peace around them,” said Beemer, chairman of America’s Research Group in Charleston, S.C. “There will be no peace around this center, because you have everyone going to the mall.”
Because of lifestyle centers and the change in consumer habits, traditional mall traffic is down 30 percent to 35 percent in the past six years, according to Beemer’s firm.
Eleven retailers will open in the Vistas next week, and seven restaurants, including Brio Tuscan Grille, La Sandia and Mikuni Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar, will open throughout the summer. When the Vistas is completely occupied, there will be about 25 tenants.
The highlight at the Vistas so far seems to be the Borders concept store. It’s 30,000 square feet and part of a family of 14 stores nationwide that will host digital-download stations for customers and event space.
The store looks and feels like a traditional bookstore but will offer customers a chance to mix and burn CDs, download audio books and create photo albums and family trees.
Elizabeth Aguilera: 303-954-1372 or eaguilera@denverpost.com
At the Vistas
Restaurants
