Tim Hanifin, Vice President of Graycor Construction Company, was featured in the May issue of Shopping Center, offering insight into the challenges that accompany retail redevelopments.

See excerpt below and click here for the full article.

Malls and shopping centers thrive when they provide something that online competitors can’t: an enhanced customer experience. Creating that experience means repositioning or redeveloping retail space, which takes experience of another sort: the expertise of a design and construction team that can help you weigh all your options and choose the best course.

The national wave of store closings or downsizing from major retailers like JC Penney, Macy’s, Sears and Kmart, among others, presents a challenge and an opportunity for shopping center owners. The challenge is to backfill large vacancies in an environment where most large chains are shrinking. The opportunity allows owners to re-use and reposition shopping centers as entertainment destinations, with theaters and restaurants to complement experience-oriented retail stores.

Redevelopment can be straightforward in cases where the space can accommodate new stores or other uses without major structural work. In many cases, however, redevelopment is a highly complex process that requires a project team with the relevant experience and processes in place to help owners choose the right course and see it through to a successful completion.