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PROVING GROUND

New concepts cut their teeth at Easton Town Center

By Steve McLinden

Will it play in ... Columbus?

That’s a new rub on an old saw. But these days, the “Peoria” component of the original catchphrase could indeed be supplanted by booming Columbus, Ohio, which has become an incubator for new retail and restaurant concepts — largely on the strength of its prosperous town-within-a-town, Easton Town Center.

The $225 million, 1.5 million-square-foot mixed-use center, which planted its roots in the city’s New Albany neighborhood in 1999, continues to reel in a bevy of trendy, new-to-the-state and new-to-the-country tenants, like a Rodeo Drive of the Midwest.

Electronics seller Hhgregg’s new “kitchen studio” concept, Fine Lines, opened at Easton in February as just the third of its kind in the U.S., while a new 8,000-square-foot McCormick & Schmick’s made its Ohio debut there. Last fall Victoria’s Secret picked Easton to unveil its latest store format, as did Bath & Body Works, whose 4,000-square-foot spa-like interior there became the first of its kind to offer collections for girls 8 to 12. The tweaked Victoria’s Secret store now serves as the chain’s flagship and a prototype for remodels and new stores.

“Columbus is simply a great place for companies to do prototypes,” said Marshall Rose, chairman of The Georgetown Co., the New York City-based firm that led development of the center with partner Steiner + Associates, of Columbus. “It has a mature demography — not a luxury one, but a very strong one — that reflects America. It’s quite conducive to testing products ... and Easton Town Center has really helped drive that.”

The city doesn’t suffer the stigma that other mature Midwestern cities do, say real estate experts. “Columbus has always been known as a white-collar, nonmanufacturing area of the state that also gets a nice draw from a very wide area,” said Robert Click, the senior managing director at the Columbus office of CB Richard Ellis.

Architect John Clark of Baltimore-based Development Design Group, who designed Easton Town Center, likens the complex to a prize student. “They get called on more often and the more they get called on, the more recognition they get,” he said. “If you’re going to bring in a new concept or one-of-a-kind store, you’re going to bring it to Easton. And for the consumer, if you want to see something new and different, you’ll go to Easton.”

Even McDonald’s offers a point of difference. Its oversize 11,500-square-foot Easton eatery has a karaoke station for patrons to record their own CDs, an apparel-souvenir shop and an espresso-cappuccino bar.

Other firsts abound. Grand openings of Design Within Reach and Crate and Barrel at Easton last year marked those retailers’ entry into central Ohio. Lazarus/Macy’s chose the Easton complex a few years back to deploy its “reinvent” prototype store, featuring automated price-checkers, shopping carts and plasma screens. The massive AMC 30 built on the center’s second floor a half-decade ago was essentially an experiment, but second-floor AMCs are common today as a result, Rose says.

And there’s more. When the Apple computer store opened during the second phase in 2001, it was one of only six in the country. Anthropologie, Bang & Olufsen electronics, Brighton Collection accessories, Brio Tuscan Grille, The Cheesecake Factory, The Container Store, Pottery Barn Kids children’s furnishings store and Z Gallerie and were all new to the market or to the state when they made their debuts at Easton. The Nordstrom store that anchors the second phase was — surprise — the first in the market. In all, the complex has 55 stores that cannot be found anywhere else in central Ohio.

Because shoppers constantly seek out new and exciting things, the center will always be a work in progress, say its creators. “There’s a constant drive to improve it, to set it apart,” Clark said. “We spend at least one full day a week thinking about doing just that: How do we improve the fountain? How do we create ambient lighting? What happens if we put in another restaurant here or there?”

The same ethic applies to the mall’s Web site, which is refreshed weekly, generating over 2 million hits a year — many from job seekers. “That’s not a big number for a Web site, but it is for a retail location,” said Yaromir Steiner, CEO of Steiner + Associates, co-developer and manager of the center.

Trendsetter
Considered a “hybrid center” for its juxtaposition of influences, the complex mixes specialty retail with upscale restaurants, nightclubs and other entertainment activities spread out over 75 acres in an assortment of town square in-line, enclosed and Main Street formats — though all in the same theme. “When we design these programs we try to create a story — and we have to stick to it,” Clark said. “Your graphics, lighting and benches are reminiscent of the story — there’s a cohesiveness.”

Today, a sea of supporting businesses surrounds the center in the form of the greater Easton project, a “downtown” away from downtown on the northeast side of Columbus that was the brainchild of Georgetown Co. and a prominent retailer, The Limited. Originally, Limited planned to construct a headquarters and distribution complex on the former farmland, but highway improvements put the airport less than 10 minutes away and downtown less than 15 minutes away, prompting company founder Leslie Wexner to revise his vision. Hence, Easton Town Center would go on to form the nucleus of the 1,300-acre Easton complex, which has grown to 3 million square feet of retail, 5 million square feet of office space, three hotels and 1,000 apartment units — with more of everything to come.

Before launching the project, Rose’s firm studied every downtown district and retail center it could, including the renowned Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Mo., which was built in the 1920s and is still going strong. At the same time, the partners were starting to realize that typical enclosed malls with the requisite four department stores were all beginning to look the same. They felt a mixed-use “town,” restricted to two upscale department-store anchors, could better drive other development.

“As we did our research, we started to see elements of what made people happy,” Rose said. “Our main goal was not how much sales per square foot we could get. Our assumption was that if we got enough people to come, the numbers would take care of themselves.”

They have. Retail sales at Easton Town Center average a very healthy $550 per square foot, Steiner says. “The restaurant numbers are even better.”

Born out of that revised vision in the late ‘90s was a town-center model that was — and still is — widely emulated. “At the time, centers didn’t like mixing the various elements and Easton is central to that change of mind,” Steiner said. “Since then, it’s become easier and easier for others to do those things.”

With a mix of skill and a little luck, the development group got it right the first time. “With its size, street width, the theme and size of the public spaces, we managed to nail this thing from the beginning,” Clark said. “It really is the oldest out there of this new era of town centers.”

There was one major exception: the size and location of the cinema, Clark concedes. The 30-screen cinema was unwieldy. “When we originally did it, it was used as an anchor, but it created a bottleneck in the expansion,” Clark said. “You had to go through a narrow walkway [to get] into the second phase.” The center has since redesigned the entrances for better flow, he says.

One of the best aspects of the center is its sustainability. “We all came through this industry thinking that you build a shopping center and knock it down 30 years later,” said Clark. “But I don’t see Easton being knocked down in 50 years.”

Contributing to the center’s allure are the abundance of plazas, public spaces, a children’s park, 27 different restaurants and an eclectic assortment of pubs, clubs and fun venues, including The Funny Bone Comedy Club & Café, GameWorks, Fadó Irish Pub and the risqué Shadowbox Cabaret. Though there’s no nudity at Shadowbox, there are adult themes, flamboyant costuming, hard-driving rock music and Saturday Night Live-style skits “which are very daring,” according to Steiner.

“It never feels like you’re going shopping when you go to Easton Town Center,” Steiner said. “You feel like you’re going out on the town.”

Besides a wide of array of small office tenants and service businesses, the town center features a giant health club, Lifetime Fitness, which at nearly 100,000 square feet is triple the size of the average club. Two 24-hour-a-day skating rinks drive additional traffic. Peripherally, several retail complexes in the greater Easton project are within a short walking distance, including the 1 million-square-foot Easton Market, anchored by Lowe’s, Bed Bath & Beyond and other retailers that sport design elements compatible with their town center neighbor.

Phase three, slated for completion late next year, will feature an upscale natural foods retailer such as Whole Foods or Wild Oats. The gourmet food concept “has really become the darling of the town center merchandising plan,” Clark said. “It should be a part of this destination, even if it represents a second [shopper] trip to Easton.” As many as three new hotels will rise on the outskirts of the center, as will an assortment of condos, apartments, flats and town homes, Easton officials say.

Expect crowds. Just five days after the Sept. 11 attacks, a mall record of 74,110 visited Easton Town Center to explore the newly opened second phase.

Susan Merryman, the Columbus Chamber of Commerce’s vice president of marketing, says Easton Town Center “is a nice welcome mat for Columbus, minutes from the airport and easy to get to. And it has a feel that’s different than any other center.” Matthew McCollister, the chamber’s vice president of economic development, says Easton may not be in the middle of town, “but it’s everything you want in a town center. It’s not just local, it’s very much a regional shopping destination — a one-stop opportunity.”

Steiner says the city of Columbus is to Ohio as Austin is to Texas. “It’s a charming place, a political power based in a university town with strong demographics.” But the center itself, he says, is the fulfillment of shopper dreams: “To us, it is a response to the wishes and the aspirations of the customer.”