Partner Bradley Kaufman Speaks to Press About Restaurants Replacing Stores as Mall Anchors
Pryor Cashman real estate partner Bradley Kaufman, one of the firm’s retail-leasing specialists and co-chair of the commercial leasing committee for the New York State Bar Association, was quoted in the Sunday editions of The Bergen Record in an article entitled “Restaurants Replace Stores As Mall Anchors.”
The July 1, 2007 article by Joan Verdon describes how the malls of North Jersey have developed a voracious appetite for chain restaurants as tenants, citing The Cheesecake Factory, Legal Sea Foods and P.F. Chang's China Bistro as examples, and noting that these restaurants are becoming “anchors” counted on to drive traffic to the shopping center.
Kaufman said that malls are turning to restaurants as one of the easiest ways to upgrade a center, noting: “What they're trying to do is compete with the new lifestyle centers. They’re trying to move up to the next level. It's very hard to attract the new hot retailer to the older mall. It is easier to upgrade your restaurant.”
On the other hand, Kaufman stated that malls should be careful not to overindulge in the restaurant trend because “a mall is a mall. It's not going to be a food court. If you emphasize restaurants too much, you will lose your core retail business.” Kaufman also noted the problems which are unique to restaurants, such as odors, garbage disposal, pests and peak hours that are different from the rest of the mall.
The read the entire article by Joan Verdon as it appeared on the web, please click here. To read the article from the newspaper itself, please click here.
