Lifestyle Centers: A Hot New Trend

The International Council of Shopping Center's magazine, Shopping Centers Today, reports on this new trend. "[W]hat exactly is a lifestyle center? Beyond the obvious -- a traditional streetscape layout with sit-down restaurants and a conglomeration of lifestyle retailers such as Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn and Eddie Bauer -- the term can apply to a variety of different centers, and there is considerable disagreement about what qualifies for the title. Ask three people to name the first lifestyle center and you will receive three different answers. Some say Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Mo., dating from the 1920s, was the first, while others point to CocoWalk, in Coconut Grove, Fla., which opened in 1990. No one even uttered the words 'lifestyle center' until Poag & McEwen coined and copyrighted the term, McEwen said, identifying The Shops of Saddle Creek, which Poag & McEwen opened in 1987 in Memphis, Tenn., as the first purpose-built lifestyle center."