They’re cuter. Smaller. And generally more fun.
And for years, traditional malls have been trying to evolve to keep up with them.
As more open-air lifestyle centers, such as City Place in Santa Ana, pop up around Orange County,often close to an enclosed regional mall,they bump up the standard for traditional malls to meet.
City Place is bringing that bar to a new level. The 18-acre mixed-use project, which is across from Westfield Group’s MainPlace, includes 60,000 square feet of restaurants and stores along with 242 lofts for people to live in and run their businesses out of.
The lofts are attracting boutique retailers who like the flexibility and the financial savings of the set up.
Dana Harvey recently opened Harveys boutique with his wife, Melanie, in a live and work loft at City Place. He said he priced leasing at the malls and it’s five times what he’s paying at City Place.
The Harveys had been doing well with their online store for their Harveys Industries Inc., selling stylish and sturdy handbags made out of seatbelts. But they wanted to open an actual store, he said.
With different rules at a live-work space, they have advantages over mall stores, such as flexible business hours, he said.
“We can create our own hours for the convenience of our customers,” he said.
Harveys held a couple of events that have lasted until midnight, not something it could’ve done at the mall.
For more on this story, see the Nov. 5 issue of the Business Journal.
