Below is an article about our president, Rick Hill, reprinted from the Courier-Journal.
Run or draw.
That was a decision Rick Hill had to make as an undergraduate at the University of Kentucky nearly 40 years ago. A native of Bardstown, he wanted to be an architect but when he signed up for classes and found that mandatory studio times conflicted with running, he picked running.
“I made a career decision right there,” he recalled.
Maybe not so much.
Despite a long career in marketing shopping centers from his base in Charlotte, N.C., and a lifelong interest in running, Hill never lost his urge to design. He just reinvented himself as a real estate strategist and designer.
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Posted in Company News, Industry News, Real Estate, Retail, Shopping Centers, Specialty Retail | 2 Comments »
In 2008 I made 10 trips to Dubai and worked on two projects. In doing so, I met many wonderful people and saw a good deal of projects that were beyond belief. A good deal of these projects were completed and many more will never be built. In general, I found the Emiratis to be gracious host and the hired help to be less than forth coming. Outlined below are my observations.
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Posted in Culture, Real Estate, Real Estate Development, Retail, Shopping Centers | No Comments »
A few short years ago Women’s Wear Daily listed Bal Harbour Shops as the most productive shopping center in the United States with sales reportedly topping $1400 per square foot. Not far behind was the Forum Shops in Las Vegas with various reports of sales running on average in the $1300 to $1500 range.
Then in 2008, along came Aventura Mall, located a few miles north of Bal Harbour with a report that their sales were exceeding $1100 per square foot and they were closing in on Bal Harbour. But not to be out done, Bal Harbour came back with astounding sales projections that jumped to $2,139 per square foot in 2008. In nearby Orlando, upstart Mall at Millenia reported sales per square foot at a surprising $1000.
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OVERVIEW
Six major trends over the past decade have changed the way we eat, what we eat and where we eat it. These trends are as follows:
- Required Healthy Diets – Consumers are increasingly becoming more concerned with eating healthy food, not so much as by choice but out of necessity.
- Food Network – The food network makes celebrity chefs out of all of us.
- Gourmet Kitchens – We are no longer content with kitchen gadgets and a new cook book, they want professional kitchens with multiple ovens, oversized refrigerators and other tools of the trade.
- Exotic Travel – Lower airfares, globalization, travel magazines and world travel books have all contributed to a desire for people to see the world and not just cosmopolitan cities. As people travel to places like Yerga Cheffe in Ethiopia they want to bring back authentic coffee beans to become the new trophy over the living room mantle.
- Gourmet Markets – Today, Whole Foods and a host of other specialty food purveyors are located in every city of any real size. These markets provide the inspiration and a plentiful supply of ingredients to compliment virtually every type culinary adventure.
- Celebrity Chefs – Finally, seemingly everyday people have become overnight celebrity chefs providing inspiration for every home chef.
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Posted in Restaurant | 3 Comments »
When I heard that Louis Vuitton was opening a store in Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, last month I was completely intrigued by this unexpected announcement. So I decided to research and came across some interesting information that has shed light not only onto Louis Vuitton’s decision but the luxury market as a whole.
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It seems like everywhere you look, retailers are closing shop and filing bankruptcies, and empty storefronts are lining the streets. Last year we saw the closing of retail giants, Circuit City and Linens N’ Things, and luxury retailers such as Versace also closed stores around the world. So why is it that Legoland Discovery Center, an attraction centered on the LEGO building blocks, is opening stores in Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta?
I believe Legoland sees an opportunity in the recession because consumers are looking for free or affordable cost entertainment in their malls. This trend also corresponds to a consumer who expects their news to be free on the web. Consequently, we see malls across the globe add entertainment and amusement venues to draw consumers who have relegated shopping to obligatory time, which is something close to work. These consumers are bored with the same stores in every mall and with higher gas prices, lost home values and depressed 401K accounts they do not have the funds for a shopping spree.
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Posted in Culture, Real Estate, Retail, Shopping Centers | 2 Comments »
Reprinted from Atlanta Journal Constitution
A Legoland Discovery Centre – a small indoor attraction based on the tiny plastic brick children’s toys from Denmark – is being planned for metro Atlanta, a broker said Friday.
The company that will develop it – Merlin Entertainment Group of the United Kingdom – may also seek to bring its wax museum brand — Madame Tussauds — to Atlanta, said Howard Samuels, the company’s national broker with Samuels & Co. in Los Angeles.
The location for the Legoland attraction – which would charge admission of $15 for kids and $19 for adults – is still in negotiations, Samuels said. The attraction would include an Atlanta skyline made of Legos.
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Reprinted from The Telegraph
Calcutta has the potential to house 10 amusement parks, but has only two such crowd-pullers — Nicco Park and Aquatica. While South India boasts of 30-35 fun parks, the eastern region has just seven of the 120 in the country.
This was the talking point at a meet organised by the Indian Association of Amusement Parks and Industries on Saturday in Nicco Park.
“The process (of setting up amusement parks) was speeded up in the south because of government support,” said N.D. Rana, the president of the association, formed 13 years ago to promote the industry.
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