Lifestyle Centers: Faux Downtowns Coming to a Suburb Near You

The Village, "a year-old shopping center in suburban Detroit built to look like Main Street USA," is "part of a fast-growing concept in commercial development called 'lifestyle centers.' These faux downtowns are under construction in nearly every state, and dozens more are planned. Lifestyle centers--a name coined by developer Terry McEwen when he built the first known center of this type in suburban Memphis--mix high-end retailers...with hip restaurants and pleasing architecture....Developers pin their success on convenience, safety and high-end offerings; the people who go there see them as community gathering places or surrogate town squares."