News
MALL MADNESS
March 18, 2010
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| Despite the appearance of green shoots, the development market is still volatile, says GreenbergFarrow principal John Clifford, who recently relocated from Atlanta to the NY office. (We thought our commute was bad— he constantly flew between the cities!) Developers and owners are carefully hunting for value, as no one wants to risk projects for a 3% ROI. But one hot asset class is vertical retail, he says. A recent GreenbergFarrow project was the renovation and repositioning of the Manhattan Mall; its redesign included improved site access and circulation, core and atrium renovations, relocating and adding escalators and elevators, and exterior façade recladding. |
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| John's firm also worked on the 1M-SF Gateway Center at Bronx Terminal Market, East Harlem's 500k-SF East River Plaza (pictured), and the 600k-SF Rego Park Mall II (now completing construction) and recently completed the redesign and expansion of the Bergen Mall in Paramus, NJ. You can still reap rewards in underserved markets with high barriers to entry, like NYC, Boston, San Francisco, and Chicago, John says. Canada—a "night and day" market compared with the US—has also brought new work to the firm. John is also seeing more projects where investors are buying distressed assets and want to add more value to their purchases. |
