MNdude
Aug 12, 2007, 7:51 PM
BIG BOX makeover
Communities are demanding that big-box retail centers be more attractive and more in tune with their surroundings.
By Susan Feyder, Star Tribune
Last update: August 11, 2007 – 9:02 PM
Standing in front of her Richfield home, Erika Lozano looked out at the SuperTarget and Home Depot being built just a few hundred yards away and offered a comment that typifies the conflicted views most people hold about big-box stores.
"I'm going to like being able to shop there," Lozano said. "But I miss the houses," she added, pointing to where homes like hers used to be.
Big-box retailers, from discounters like Wal-Mart to so-called category killers like Dick's Sporting Goods, are clearly a hit with shoppers. Community centers, which usually have at least one big-box tenant, continue to be the fastest-growing segment of retail development in the Twin Cities and other parts of the country.
But people are less enthusiastic about the impact such massive outlets have on their communities.
Increasingly, projects are drawing scrutiny from residents and city officials whose concerns range from traffic congestion to the sheer size and appearance of the stores.
In Roseville, opposition to big-box retail was one of the reasons the Twin Lakes mixed-use development was called off, according to Jamie Radel, city planning associate. In Inver Grove Heights, residents thwarted construction of a Wal-Mart until the store was downsized and redesigned.
To counter such increasingly widespread resistance, developers are beginning to redefine what a big box store should look like.
In Edina, a SuperTarget to open this fall near Southdale will have a distinctive flagstone and metal facade, glass entryways that will glow at night and a sleek design that will make the building look less bulky than the smaller Target Greatland it's replacing. The new store was approved after the city's planning commission called for several changes in design, building materials and landscaping.
And in Lozano's neighborhood, the Cedar Point Commons project with the SuperTarget, Home Depot and several smaller stores will reflect years of planning and input from Richfield city officials and residents.
"There's an awareness on the part of large retailers that they need to make their stores more attractive," said Jim McComb, a Minneapolis retail consultant. It's a significant change, particularly for discount retailers whose early stores were meant to look like stripped-down warehouses as part of their low-cost image, he said.
For example, at The Quarry, developed in 1997 in northeast Minneapolis by Ryan Cos., the tenants, which include Target, PetsMart, OfficeMax and Home Depot, are lined up in a solid wall that looks like a fortress. Mark Schoening, a Ryan vice president who oversees retail development, said the center probably would be designed differently if it were being built today.
Design challenges
The demands of communities wanting better-looking big-box centers pose challenges for retailers and developers. "These retailers operate in a highly competitive business and have to pay very close attention to their return on investment," Schoening said. "There are circumstances where they can depart [from a standard store design], and others where they can't. Cities don't always want to believe that."
Tim Murnane, senior vice president of Minnetonka-based Opus Northwest, agreed.
"It's not by happenstance that these big-box stores get built and that it all works," he said. "Retailers have very specific requirements, with design considerations that include things like how merchandise shipments are delivered and brought into stores."
For developers, the difficulties of meeting both retailers' and communities' needs have become even more complicated with the dwindling availability of suitable land, Schoening and Murnane said.
"We have to be twice as clever these days to make the best possible use of every square inch," Schoening said. "It's a lot harder to find pieces of land that are pre-made to order."
At the Fountains at Arbor Lakes in Maple Grove, an 800,000-square-foot project with anchors including Costco, Lowe's, Dick's Sporting Goods and REI, Opus worked with big-box tenants so their stores could look more like the smaller shops in the adjacent Arbor Lakes Main Street, Murnane said. Design modifications included varying the facades and roof lines of large-scale stores to break up the mass to look more like a row of smaller shops.
That's the same approach that Wal-Mart took with its Inver Grover Heights store on S. Robert Street. About every 100 feet the facade changes, with awnings on some portions to make the store's long outer wall look like separate storefronts.
Parking lots are a problem
Murnane said big-box stores at the Fountains also were arranged so that in some places they share parking areas with the smaller Main Street stores.
"Parking is always an issue now for communities," Murnane said. "They do not want to see a sea of asphalt."
Unlike some older "power centers" made up exclusively of big-box stores, the Fountains and many newer developments combine large and small retail tenants.
That's also the case at the Shops of Plymouth Creek, which opened last year and combines a Lowe's home improvement store with smaller tenants such as a Palm Beach Tan salon and a Dunn Bros. coffee shop. Developed by Minneapolis-based CSM Corp., the project was conceived as a neighborhood center because it was close to a residential area.
Even so, it was rejected at one point by the city council because it didn't provide enough of a buffer between the stores and homes. A revised plan that scaled back the amount of commercial development and added landscaping was approved.
Edina planners didn't get everything they wanted with the new Southdale area SuperTarget. They sought to have housing integrated into the development on the 15-acre site at 70th Street and York Avenue S. Target Corp. and Ryan said combining housing with the store presented numerous problems such as shielding residents from late-night deliveries and loading docks. The City Council agreed, but insisted on other changes, including screening off the loading area, landscaping the parking area and adding plazas and green space to link the store with nearby shopping areas.
Edina Planning Director Cary Teague said he believes most people are satisfied with the result, especially the exterior design that sets the store apart from other Targets.
That also was the goal for Richfield with Cedar Point Commons, a 370,000-square-foot retail center near 66th Street and Cedar Avenue, according Bruce Palmborg, director of community development.
"We were not interested in some sort of cookie-cutter design," he said. Striving for something unique was even more important considering some residents' reluctance to including big-box retail in the Cedar Avenue area.
Neighborhood settings
When the city sought residents' feedback for a master plan to redevelop the Cedar corridor, nearly half expressed concerns about big-box development. Asked to rate their preferences by comparing a series of paired photos, they overwhelmingly preferred urban neighborhood retail settings like St. Paul's Grand Avenue. By nearly a three-to-one ratio, they rejected the Shops at Lyndale, an older big-box center in Richfield near Lyndale Avenue and Interstate 494.
"We still thought we could be OK with big-box retail, but we knew it couldn't be plain vanilla," Palmborg said. "We presented the idea to Ryan to come up with something unique that could tie into the location near the airport. They had no problem with that, and neither did Target. After they were on board, Home Depot followed suit."
Brick, not concrete
Both the SuperTarget and Home Depot feature exteriors of deep-toned brick accented with metal that's reminiscent of an airport hangar. Palmborg noted that the brick is a departure for Home Depot; its stores tend to have mostly concrete-block facades. Other aviation-themed elements are on exteriors, such as fins and a structure at one end that resembles an air traffic control tower.
The two big stores and the 65,000 square feet for smaller retail tenants are laid out to look like an urban corner rather than a strip mall. "That way when you drive down 66th you don't have this huge parking lot staring you in the face," Palmborg said.
The original design had the big stores facing Cedar and their backs to the houses on 17th Avenue. "There was concern about creating dead space between the stores and the neighborhood," Palmborg said. The layout was flipped so the large stores now face the homes.
Some neighborhood residents aren't happy with the change. Eric Bucich, who lives a few doors down from Lozano, said he would have preferred not having to face the parking lot. He said a neighborhood proposal to lower the lot's elevation wasn't followed. As a result, shoppers' car headlights will beam directly into the houses' front windows.
Lozano, Bucich and others along 17th Avenue may not have to co-exist with big-box indefinitely: The city's long-term plans call for purchasing and removing those houses to make way for multi-unit housing.
Susan Feyder • 612-673-1723 • sfeyder@startribune.com
© 2007 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
http://www.startribune.com/535/story/1354349.html
Pictrues of the Edina Super Target:
http://www.buzz.mn/files/images/target.preview.jpg
James Lileks, Star Tribune Editor
Communities are demanding that big-box retail centers be more attractive and more in tune with their surroundings.
By Susan Feyder, Star Tribune
Last update: August 11, 2007 – 9:02 PM
Standing in front of her Richfield home, Erika Lozano looked out at the SuperTarget and Home Depot being built just a few hundred yards away and offered a comment that typifies the conflicted views most people hold about big-box stores.
"I'm going to like being able to shop there," Lozano said. "But I miss the houses," she added, pointing to where homes like hers used to be.
Big-box retailers, from discounters like Wal-Mart to so-called category killers like Dick's Sporting Goods, are clearly a hit with shoppers. Community centers, which usually have at least one big-box tenant, continue to be the fastest-growing segment of retail development in the Twin Cities and other parts of the country.
But people are less enthusiastic about the impact such massive outlets have on their communities.
Increasingly, projects are drawing scrutiny from residents and city officials whose concerns range from traffic congestion to the sheer size and appearance of the stores.
In Roseville, opposition to big-box retail was one of the reasons the Twin Lakes mixed-use development was called off, according to Jamie Radel, city planning associate. In Inver Grove Heights, residents thwarted construction of a Wal-Mart until the store was downsized and redesigned.
To counter such increasingly widespread resistance, developers are beginning to redefine what a big box store should look like.
In Edina, a SuperTarget to open this fall near Southdale will have a distinctive flagstone and metal facade, glass entryways that will glow at night and a sleek design that will make the building look less bulky than the smaller Target Greatland it's replacing. The new store was approved after the city's planning commission called for several changes in design, building materials and landscaping.
And in Lozano's neighborhood, the Cedar Point Commons project with the SuperTarget, Home Depot and several smaller stores will reflect years of planning and input from Richfield city officials and residents.
"There's an awareness on the part of large retailers that they need to make their stores more attractive," said Jim McComb, a Minneapolis retail consultant. It's a significant change, particularly for discount retailers whose early stores were meant to look like stripped-down warehouses as part of their low-cost image, he said.
For example, at The Quarry, developed in 1997 in northeast Minneapolis by Ryan Cos., the tenants, which include Target, PetsMart, OfficeMax and Home Depot, are lined up in a solid wall that looks like a fortress. Mark Schoening, a Ryan vice president who oversees retail development, said the center probably would be designed differently if it were being built today.
Design challenges
The demands of communities wanting better-looking big-box centers pose challenges for retailers and developers. "These retailers operate in a highly competitive business and have to pay very close attention to their return on investment," Schoening said. "There are circumstances where they can depart [from a standard store design], and others where they can't. Cities don't always want to believe that."
Tim Murnane, senior vice president of Minnetonka-based Opus Northwest, agreed.
"It's not by happenstance that these big-box stores get built and that it all works," he said. "Retailers have very specific requirements, with design considerations that include things like how merchandise shipments are delivered and brought into stores."
For developers, the difficulties of meeting both retailers' and communities' needs have become even more complicated with the dwindling availability of suitable land, Schoening and Murnane said.
"We have to be twice as clever these days to make the best possible use of every square inch," Schoening said. "It's a lot harder to find pieces of land that are pre-made to order."
At the Fountains at Arbor Lakes in Maple Grove, an 800,000-square-foot project with anchors including Costco, Lowe's, Dick's Sporting Goods and REI, Opus worked with big-box tenants so their stores could look more like the smaller shops in the adjacent Arbor Lakes Main Street, Murnane said. Design modifications included varying the facades and roof lines of large-scale stores to break up the mass to look more like a row of smaller shops.
That's the same approach that Wal-Mart took with its Inver Grover Heights store on S. Robert Street. About every 100 feet the facade changes, with awnings on some portions to make the store's long outer wall look like separate storefronts.
Parking lots are a problem
Murnane said big-box stores at the Fountains also were arranged so that in some places they share parking areas with the smaller Main Street stores.
"Parking is always an issue now for communities," Murnane said. "They do not want to see a sea of asphalt."
Unlike some older "power centers" made up exclusively of big-box stores, the Fountains and many newer developments combine large and small retail tenants.
That's also the case at the Shops of Plymouth Creek, which opened last year and combines a Lowe's home improvement store with smaller tenants such as a Palm Beach Tan salon and a Dunn Bros. coffee shop. Developed by Minneapolis-based CSM Corp., the project was conceived as a neighborhood center because it was close to a residential area.
Even so, it was rejected at one point by the city council because it didn't provide enough of a buffer between the stores and homes. A revised plan that scaled back the amount of commercial development and added landscaping was approved.
Edina planners didn't get everything they wanted with the new Southdale area SuperTarget. They sought to have housing integrated into the development on the 15-acre site at 70th Street and York Avenue S. Target Corp. and Ryan said combining housing with the store presented numerous problems such as shielding residents from late-night deliveries and loading docks. The City Council agreed, but insisted on other changes, including screening off the loading area, landscaping the parking area and adding plazas and green space to link the store with nearby shopping areas.
Edina Planning Director Cary Teague said he believes most people are satisfied with the result, especially the exterior design that sets the store apart from other Targets.
That also was the goal for Richfield with Cedar Point Commons, a 370,000-square-foot retail center near 66th Street and Cedar Avenue, according Bruce Palmborg, director of community development.
"We were not interested in some sort of cookie-cutter design," he said. Striving for something unique was even more important considering some residents' reluctance to including big-box retail in the Cedar Avenue area.
Neighborhood settings
When the city sought residents' feedback for a master plan to redevelop the Cedar corridor, nearly half expressed concerns about big-box development. Asked to rate their preferences by comparing a series of paired photos, they overwhelmingly preferred urban neighborhood retail settings like St. Paul's Grand Avenue. By nearly a three-to-one ratio, they rejected the Shops at Lyndale, an older big-box center in Richfield near Lyndale Avenue and Interstate 494.
"We still thought we could be OK with big-box retail, but we knew it couldn't be plain vanilla," Palmborg said. "We presented the idea to Ryan to come up with something unique that could tie into the location near the airport. They had no problem with that, and neither did Target. After they were on board, Home Depot followed suit."
Brick, not concrete
Both the SuperTarget and Home Depot feature exteriors of deep-toned brick accented with metal that's reminiscent of an airport hangar. Palmborg noted that the brick is a departure for Home Depot; its stores tend to have mostly concrete-block facades. Other aviation-themed elements are on exteriors, such as fins and a structure at one end that resembles an air traffic control tower.
The two big stores and the 65,000 square feet for smaller retail tenants are laid out to look like an urban corner rather than a strip mall. "That way when you drive down 66th you don't have this huge parking lot staring you in the face," Palmborg said.
The original design had the big stores facing Cedar and their backs to the houses on 17th Avenue. "There was concern about creating dead space between the stores and the neighborhood," Palmborg said. The layout was flipped so the large stores now face the homes.
Some neighborhood residents aren't happy with the change. Eric Bucich, who lives a few doors down from Lozano, said he would have preferred not having to face the parking lot. He said a neighborhood proposal to lower the lot's elevation wasn't followed. As a result, shoppers' car headlights will beam directly into the houses' front windows.
Lozano, Bucich and others along 17th Avenue may not have to co-exist with big-box indefinitely: The city's long-term plans call for purchasing and removing those houses to make way for multi-unit housing.
Susan Feyder • 612-673-1723 • sfeyder@startribune.com
© 2007 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
http://www.startribune.com/535/story/1354349.html
Pictrues of the Edina Super Target:
http://www.buzz.mn/files/images/target.preview.jpg
James Lileks, Star Tribune Editor