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“The big, white box that Gap has become famous for just doesn't feel relevant today,” said Gap Inc. chief Paul Pressler. In April the retailer renovated seven Gap stores to a new prototype (left). Men’s and women’s sections have separate portals. Denver shoppers are responding favorably, he noted. Gap will introduce the new design at 10 stores in the Hartford/New Haven, Conn., market and at five in San Diego later this year. Pressler says some new elements will be rolled out to all U.S. Gap stores.

E-tailers can elbow into malls for a fraction of the usual cost, thanks to a new concept called Epicenter Collection, which is seeking to open anchor stores at about 100 U.S. malls. The concept will make its debut this year in a space measuring between 140,000 and 180,000 square feet at Polaris Fashion Place, Columbus, Ohio.
E-tailers can rent space for three years for less than $100 per square foot. “In a multichannel world, consumers expect merchants to have retail stores,” said Tony Lee, CEO of Greenwich, Conn.-based Epicenter. “We can offer lower starting costs to e-tailers because we have already put in all the lighting and mechanical systems.”

The vast asphalt parking lot — an American invention — has been exported to Europe, and shoppers there are welcoming it warmly, says Mills Corp. President and CEO Laurence Siegel. The firm’s Madrid Xanadú in Spain contains 7,500 surface parking spaces, 500 garage spaces and a ring road, and “European shoppers love it,” he said. “At some of the shopping centers there, it can take half an hour to park because of the lack of space.” Meanwhile, U.S. cities are asking developers to decrease the number of spaces at their projects. Aurora, Colo., where Shea Properties is developing mixed-use project Arvada Ridge, required parking spaces to be virtually hidden. “It used to be, ‘How much parking can you put in?’” said Steven C. Mulhern, director of development at Shea. “Now it’s, ‘How little parking can you put in?’”

Speed and shopping go together. First, RED Development announced The Legends, a lifestyle center adjacent to a NASCAR racetrack in Kansas City, Kan. Then, Casto Lifestyle Properties announced tentative plans to co-develop with the International Speedway Corp. a $75 million mixed-use project across the street from the Daytona International Speedway, in Daytona Beach, Fla. But it’s not only NASCAR. Forest City Development and horse racetrack magnate Magna Entertainment Corp. will build The Village at Gulf Stream Park in Miami (below). “[Magna] wants to raise the bar on racetrack development to its glory days,” said William P. Voegele, Forest City’s regional director of development. The track will anchor a mixed-use complex containing 300,000 square feet of retail.

Fitness clubs are unfit co-tenants in some open-air centers because of their parking needs. But as such clubs expand, landlords want to capture those rent dollars. The trick, says Doron Valero, president of Miami’s Equity One, is to locate the fitness club and grocery store anchors as far apart as possible. “We have had a lot of success recently with an L.A. Fitness in a Publix-anchored center,” he said, referring to Sheridan Plaza, in Hollywood, Fla. “As long as you design it right, Publix doesn’t have a problem. Everybody understands the value of these clubs, because they bring in younger people.” They also attract small tenants, including juice bars and chiropractors, he said. But not all supermarkets are as willing as Publix. Many grocery chains are still against co-tenanting with health clubs, says one developer, because they’re known to “hog the parking lot.”

Slimming down is a priority for women’s specialty shops. Anthropologie, Charlotte Russe and J. Jill are all downsizing new stores this year. The roughly 15 new Anthropologie stores will average 7,500 square feet, 10 percent smaller than the existing stores, says John E. Kyees, CFO of parent company Urban Outfitters. J. Jill will open 40 new stores this year, averaging 3,000 square feet, down from last year’s average of 4,000 square feet, says Gordon Cooke, CEO of J. Jill Group. At its 150 existing stores, J. Jill will take advantage of opportunities to downsize, he says. At Simon Property Group’s Roosevelt Field, in Garden City, N.Y., J. Jill gave up 1,800 square feet of its store to a competitor. Meanwhile, Charlotte Russe Holdings’ new stores are about 1,300 square feet smaller than existing ones. Recently, at Westfield Garden State Plaza, in Paramus, N.J., the company turned one of its 8,200-square-foot Rampage stores into a Charlotte Russe and then moved Rampage into a new, 4,500-square-foot store at the mall. President and CEO Mark Hoffman says downsized Charlotte Russe stores have seen total sales jump by 15 percent.