Publication: Shopping Centers Today
PROVO LIFESTYLE SPARKS SISTER PROJECT
By Donna Mitchell
Anyone been here lately? I hear its turning into quite the destination area. Apparantly alot of nice residential mix going in.
The Village at Riverwoods, a 152-acre mixed-use project under construction in Provo, Utah, was inspired by the success of a nearby lifestyle center.
Here’s something not seen every day in shopping center development — the retail portion of a multiuse development conceived of and built before the rest of the project.
The continued success of the 190,000-square-foot The Shops at Riverwoods, an open-air lifestyle center built in Provo, Utah, in 1998, has sparked the creation of The Village at Riverwoods, a 152-acre development that will be a mix of more retail, residential and office space.
With the arrival of The Village in the spring of 2002, The Shops, which caters to the mostly Mormon population surrounding Provo, is expected to play an even more integral role in the larger Riverwoods community, located in the mountainous, high-desert environment of Utah’s Provo Canyon.
"After the success of The Shops, [we] had the option to build additional retail on the vacant land along the Provo River or think of a better use," said Ralph S. Epstein, managing director of Terranet Investments, developer of The Shops at Riverwoods. "The decision was made that mixed-use would support the community better than pure retail." Terranet Investments is a two-pronged partnership comprised of San Francisco-based TRS Partners and Esnet Management of Provo.
In February of this past year, a partnership called Terranet Investments No. 2, broke ground on The Village at Riverwoods. The Village will contain 90 single-level homes, 33 town houses and 14 loft-style homes over retail space. The loft-style homes will be built over 25,000 square feet of additional retail space, bringing the total retail square footage in the Riverwoods community to 215,000.
"With the successful development of The Shops at Riverwoods already in place, the hard part of the urban village plan was already completed," said Christopher Leinberger, former co-owner of Robert Charles Lesser and Co., who provided the market research for the Riverwoods concept.
"Our strategy is to have an appropriate amount of retail supported by homes and offices. Where so many developers go astray is by overbuilding retail,’’ Epstein explained.
Cleveland-based KeyBank provided the $36 million construction loan for The Village, which includes the 25,000 square feet of retail.
Like The Shops, which encourages a leisurely, walking retail experience, The Village site is being arranged with wide sidewalks to encourage a pedestrian environment. Once completed, The Village is expected to accommodate 500 residents.
"It is meant to be a new urban village, a walkable environment to live, work, shop and be entertained — all within an area where you don’t have to get in a car and drive if you don’t want to.’’
Some community leaders welcome the concept as a way to deal with the threat of suburban sprawl in Utah’s growing population. Kristine Thompson, community relations and development manager for Envision Utah, an organization that oversees "quality of life’’ issues such as traffic and pollution in the area, said: "We saw a lot of communities similar to this built back in the 1930s and 1940s, and in the later years, auto-oriented developments. However, we’re seeing a change in what people are looking for. Riverwoods is one of the first that has tackled this.’’
Shortly after The Village’s Feb. 20 groundbreaking, an editorial column in Provo’s The Daily Herald read: "We hope this becomes a model for development, because Utah needs to do something about growth. It’s a concept that’s worked on the East Coast for years, with people being able to get around major cities without ever owning a car. It’s time we heeded the lesson and put it in place here."
Field Paoli Architects of San Francisco designed The Village as well as The Shops. Lead architect and principal Rob Anderson and his team had a pedestrian lifestyle in mind when they designed The Village. The streets are narrow, to discourage speeding, but can also accommodate sport utility vehicles and other large cars as well as parallel parking. Similar to The Shops, natural fieldstone is incorporated into the design of the homes. The material was built into the bases of some of the houses, and used in some landscaping touches around The Village. That choice had a unifying effect on the look of the Riverwoods community, Anderson said. The loft units seem to exemplify what the builders are trying to accomplish for the community, by blending retail and residential elements into a convenient town setting. Those units will be built over retail space, and some of their entrances will face The Shops, Anderson said. About half of that space might be dedicated to neighborhood retailers — possibly a flower shop, shoe repair store or a specialty market that sells whole foods. And the stores would complement, not compete with, the other retailers in the larger shopping area, Epstein said.
As for the office park, it is about halfway completed now, with 1 million square feet of space developed. The remainder should be completed over the next five to seven years, according to Sina von Reitzenstein, a spokeswoman for Terranet Investments.
As for the success of The Shops at Riverwoods, finding the right tenant mix to serve the conservative Mormon population was important to the center’s success.
"Several of the better retailers told us they were having a difficult time finding an appropriate format for their stores in Provo, but they felt there was a market," said Epstein of Terranet. Specifically, he said, "there was not an Ann Taylor, Williams-Sonoma or Borders in Provo. The retailers were the ones who directed us to Provo, and that’s how it all came together."
The Shops at Riverwoods draws customers from Provo, where it is located, and Orem, a city with which its boundaries are intertwined. The 38-store lifestyle center is about 9 miles from Provo Towne Centre in Provo, and 4 miles from University Mall in Orem, both enclosed regional malls. Each store at The Shops at Riverwoods is built with a distinct facade that makes it seem as if the retailers own their buildings.
The cities of Provo and Orem have a combined population of about 300,000. They are part of a swath of Utah called the Greater Wasatch area, which is growing. Its current 2.2 million population is expected to increase to over 5 million by 2050, mostly from internal growth — Utahans have larger families than the U.S. average. In addition, they tend to stay in the state because of their predominantly Mormon roots, according to several sources.
A large portion of the local population belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Initially, apparel retailers were unsure about how to approach a market dominated by Mormons. They dress conservatively. They discourage shopping on Sundays. Amenities like coffeeshops would be lost on them, since the beverage is forbidden in the faith, and there is not much coffee consumption in that market.
But as it turned out, some finer points of the Mormon lifestyle helped provide fertile retailing ground for The Shops at Riverwoods.
Take the dress codes. Students at Provo-based Brigham Young University are required to dress neatly. According to Epstein, the young adults like to be hip while adhering to that dress code, and The Shops at Riverwoods helps them do that. Also, a store like Talbots often carries the conservative clothing that Mormon women prefer.
By now average specialty store sales at The Shops at Riverwoods have reached about $300 per square foot, according to von Reitzenstein.
The Shops is anchored by Borders Books & Music, Copeland’s Sports, the Wynnsong theater and a group of stores under Gap Inc.’s umbrella, namely Gap Kids, Baby Gap and Banana Republic.
"In a nutshell, I think it’s very well conceived,’’ said Jon Anderson, president of Colliers Clark CRG, a commercial real estate brokerage firm in Provo.
"If it had been just shops, or just offices, each would have done OK, but together there is a magic that creates a synergy to make it work."
Shopping Centers Today
Current Issue November 2006
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LOL.
Three Walker Brothers Developments?
. Naw - I know that is American Fork, but how far on University Ave. does one drive to be in N. Provo?
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Resort near Utah Lake harbor
Which I believe that joke has some substance to it. Especially when there have been numerous times where Payson/PG and other surrounding towns/citys have "accidentially" dumped raw sewage into the lake. 
But anyway if this plan were to go through in my opinion it could kill two birds with one stone, and that would really be benificial to Utah County in a major way imho... Good for Utah County, I hope this happens. 
Somebody tell me what this Gehry collaboration in Lehi is all about. That sounds really interesting. A project that promises to become an architectural icon of the Western United States?
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