ONLINE ONLY
Get all the news about Liberty Center in one place, with photos and videos online only at: www.journal-news.com/data/news/liberty-center-project/
COMING TUESDAY
Check www.journal-news.com Tuesday for the latest pictures of the Liberty Center construction site as part of a planned tour to be held at the property.
Before Twitter was founded and Facebook amassed 1 billion users in a day, Easton Town Center opened in the Columbus-area in 1999 and rethought the shopping center.
Developer Steiner + Associates and partners claim Easton shattered the traditional enclosed mall format. Instead, Easton's "best-in-class" retailers are found along pedestrian-friendly streetscapes that replicate urban centers. The Columbus center draws approximately 21 million visitors a year, according to the town center's website, EastonTownCenter.com.
Now the same developer is preparing to open “Easton 2.0” in the Cincinnati market some 16 years later. But this time, the approximately $350 million Liberty Center project has been designed to appeal to Millennials and hopes to entice shoppers who can be just as comfortable ordering clothes online as sorting through clothing racks.
“The biggest changes in retail real estate over the last 15 years have been the competition from online shopping as well as the gravitation of tenants to dominant centers — especially those that best cater to the needs of the consumer,” said Beau Arnason, executive vice president in charge of asset management for Steiner.
Liberty Center is the mega complex under construction now in Liberty Twp. at the crossroads of Liberty Way, Ohio 129 and Interstate 75. The first phase consists of just over 1 million-square-feet of shopping, dining, office and residential space. Dick's Sporting Goods and department store Dillard's are planned to open at Liberty Center on Oct. 8. Then, a grand opening celebration that will see the opening of more stores and restaurants is scheduled for Oct. 22.
Easton provides a central gathering place with a combination of uses including retail, office space and parks, Arnason said. What will make Liberty Center game-changing is the introduction of new community places that add to the guest experience, Arnason said.
Or, in founder Yaromir Steiner's words, Liberty Center features "public spaces on steroids."
Centered near the middle of Liberty Center’s layout is a walkable, rooftop garden. There, is a multi-denominational chapel and a community center available for rent for events, weddings and other functions. Altogether, Liberty Center has three parks.
“The totality of offerings and experiences at Liberty Center can’t be replicated online,” Arnason said.
E-commerce in the U.S. is expected to grow on average 9.4 percent a year in the five years ending in 2016, reaching sales of $291.9 billion, according to industry researcher IBISWorld Inc.
Retail property owners can take advantage of technology to drive foot traffic and provide customers a better experience, said Jesse Tron, spokesman for International Council of Shopping Centers. He’s seeing large shopping centers get retrofitted for free Internet services and create mobile applications. For example, beacon technology that connects to cell phones via Bluetooth, can send messages to customers that opt-in in real time such as the day’s special sales or events, Tron said.
“I think certainly there was a lot of worry and maybe a little bit of consternation when it came to e-commerce around the recession,” Tron said. “We’ve done a 180-around that and basically what has been found out is the way the consumer actually is shopping is ‘web-rooming’. The majority of the time, the Internet or e-commerce platforms are used as research and then you go in and make your final purchase at the shopping centers.”
“People are standing in your shopping center and making purchasing decisions with the mobile device,” he said.
Even though Millennials, defined as those ages 18-34 by the Pew Research Center, grew up surfing the web, key shopping habits could drive them to Liberty Center’s parking lots. That’s because Millennials like to shop, view shopping and dining as entertainment, and nearly 80 percent of this consumer generation buys products in stores after studying goods online, according to Illinois-based Inland Institutional Capital Partners Corp., a commercial real estate firm.
In response, Dillard’s, one of Liberty Center’s anchor tenants, has intentionally strived to be a more experiential and relational store, according to corporate spokeswoman Julie Bull.
“We view our customers with a client mentality and seek to build lasting relationships over time,” Bull said. “We achieve this with premium brands often not found in more traditional department stores and we support these brands with exceptional client service.”
Dillards.com is the chain store’s fastest growing format, but the website can complement brick-and-mortar operations, Bull said. For example, if the store is out of a color or size wanted by a customer, the website can be used to deliver that item to the customer’s doorstep, Bull said.
As part of creating an experience, customers can try out products at Dillard’s in-store beauty shop, for example, she said.
“Millennials are high information shoppers. By the time they visit our stores or dillards.com, they have already done the research on the product they are seeking,” she said.
“Often they are coming to the store to play, learn and discover, so we have designed an open, inviting and accessible environment throughout.”
About the Author