Finessing Florence

New vision would punch up aging Mall Road corridor to create 'new urbanism' ethos

By Lucy May and Lisa Biank Fasig
Cincinnati Business Courier
Jan. 14, 2005

There was a time when this corridor of aging shopping centers, telephone poles and long lines of traffic reigned as the retail gem of Northern Kentucky.

Mall Road, with Florence Mall as its anchor, for decades served as the epicenter of retail activity in the burgeoning Florence community. With its lineup of department stores, discounters and restaurants, easy access to all the major interstates and little competition, it was assured success.

But Mall Road, though no less important now than it was 30 years ago, has failed to grow with the region it serves. Northern Kentucky now counts 340,000 households. What it requires, in the mind of Cincinnati retail consultant Stan Eichelbaum, is a transformation that would make it the "southside downtown."

A cutting-edge Mall Road?
The city of Florence hired Eichelbaum's Marketing Developments Inc., for about $175,000, to come up with a plan to spruce up the 2.5-mile Mall Road corridor.

His proposal: Add housing, offices and hotels along the retail-only Mall Road and rename the corridor City Center Boulevard. The name would reflect the stretch's position at the center of the region. Northern Kentucky, after all, is now as big as Lexington, or Des Moines, Iowa.

Eichelbaum's plan seeks to change Florence's role in the region, injecting a dose of "new urbanism" thinking into the aging suburb.

"I never envisioned looking at a stretch of Mall Road as cutting edge," he said. "But Florence and Boone County are one of the great sites in the country for expansion."

Though Eichelbaum hasn't determined a final price for the plan, he insists it will make financial sense. He's confident the corridor could see substantial change in as soon as two years, with new storefronts, landscaping and "coming soon" signs. All of that would translate into jobs, higher property values and added tax revenue.

To be sure, the project is a tall order, requiring the cooperation of several property owners, not to mention the interests of prospective office and hotel developers. But if it should come to pass, it would represent an approach to community development unlike any that Greater Cincinnati has ever seen. And, if successful, it could become the springboard for a series of similar developments.

The plan has its skeptics.

"There's no question if you could demolish the Florence Mall and those strip centers, it is an absolutely magical location," said Chris Ohlinger, CEO of Highland Heights-based Service Industry Research Systems Inc., which helps retailers with development and site selection. "The question is, can its problems be solved with Band-Aids?"

Nearby projects stepped up urgency
Still, such developments could become vital for the Tri-State's older suburbs, said John Fairfield, a history professor at Xavier University who has studied urban land development. Fairfield said other local suburban communities will be forced to reinvent their business centers or watch them stagnate.

"You've got to ask yourself, what is it that attracts people to cities? It's a mix of uses and lively street life," he said. "I don't usually agree with developers, but the plan for Florence makes a lot of sense to me."

Florence Mayor Diane Whalen said city leaders have talked for years about the need to update Mall Road. But other developers' plans to build retail centers in Northern Kentucky -- namely the Jeffrey R. Anderson Real Estate project in Crestview Hills and the Bear Creek Capital center planned for Crescent Springs -- lent the project more urgency.

"Florence is not going to collapse overnight," Eichelbaum said. "But ... there are a number of cases where there was no city action where these places have ended up with check-cashing places and empty storefronts."

City officials estimate Eichelbaum's vision could add as many as 1,500 residents and 950 retail employees, and new office space could add another 2,400 office workers. The city budget relies on the city's 1.25 percent payroll tax, Whalen said.

"Of course, retail jobs don't pay the highest wages," she said. "But it is who we are. And we've decided we need to be the best at it that we can possibly be."

Overhaul easier said than done
Under Eichelbaum's plan, current property owners would have to invest in their land and buildings. The vision calls for adding residential and office space onto Florence's strip centers by building behind existing stores or adding buildings around them. Renderings show added landscaping and pedestrian walkways. Eichelbaum also wants to see a state-of-the-art movie theater along Mall Road and cultural facilities, such as a library and auditorium.

It won't come cheap. Still, Eichelbaum argues the property owners and developers will make the necessary investments because they stand to benefit by having more square feet to lease and by making their properties attractive to upscale tenants.

"A single-tiered pro­­ject is not the best vitality," Eichelbaum said. "Having residential, hotel and office creates different customer bases and different feeds."

But Ohlinger questioned whether it makes sense to add residential development in Florence, a city bursting with apartments, condominiums and single-family homes.

"I think the battle that Florence is facing is an element of congestion on Mall Road that is limiting business," Ohlinger said. "Residential development could very well exacerbate that."

Landing office tenants is not a given, either. About 30 percent of the office space in Northern Kentucky is vacant. That compares with 22 percent in suburban Cincinnati, said Jeff Carey, at Carey Laumer Commercial Realty in Kenwood.

"You normally wouldn't build a new building in an area that has a 30 percent vacancy," he said.

Eichelbaum said the project is not meant solely for the needs of today but for those of the next generation. The population of Florence Mall's primary trade area, for instance, is expected to grow to more than 355,300 in 2008 from 338,700 in 2003, according to General Growth Properties, the mall's owner.

Eichelbaum expects the entire vision to take 10 years to unfold.

Come along or be left behind
Under that timeline, it's more realistic to see expanded office space, said Scott Abernethy, vice president/office at Colliers Turley Martin Tucker, downtown.

"In the next three to five years and beyond, I would see that use of retail-office mix with hotels being a very, very viable development."

As for the existing retail along Mall Road, which includes HomeGoods, Michaels and HoneyBaked Ham, Eichelbaum said they could stay. But if existing owners don't want to buy into the concept, he suggests that maybe he and the city could find new investors who will.

There's no question that it won't be easy to coordinate the more than half-dozen property owners along Mall Road, said Norm Miller, director of the University of Cincinnati's Real Estate Center.

"It's certainly ambitious, but it is possible," Miller said, adding that some retailers and developers might have to feel the pinch of the new retail development in Crestview Hills before becoming believers.

"I'm sure what he did makes sense for the area."

Property owners taking it seriously
The largest property owner in the corridor is General Growth Properties, parent of the nearly 1 million-square-foot Florence Mall. Its cooperation could set the tone for the other property owners, in part by making the area more attractive to prospective tenants.

"The study that he's prepared is something to take a serious, serious look at," said Scott Nierman, vice president of development at General Growth. "We're not going to commit to it, obviously, but I think it's something we can look at positively."

Similar sentiment comes from New Plan Excel Trust, the New York-based owner of Florence Square and Florence Plaza, which combined house a Dick's Sporting Goods, Barnes & Noble and David Bridal, among others.

"We thought the property was a good investment before we knew about (the plan). We really thought that Florence was the epicenter of Northern Kentucky," said Michael Carroll, New Plan's senior vice president and director of redevelopment. New Plan, he said, is still evaluating the Eichelbaum plan.

Another critical parcel is the vacant 63 acres near Florence Mall owned by Joe Berkshire and his family. The land has been in the family since 1875, Berkshire said. He said he wants to see something happen along the corridor, and he is discussing options with city officials.

City officials see the plan as a way to maintain retail dominance, despite infrastructure improvements that likely will cost millions, said Rick Lunnemann, Florence's assistant city coordinator and community development director.

Still, Eichelbaum is confident an extreme Mall Road makeover will happen.

"There is consensus of everyone in the world that Mall Road is awful," he said. "Our effort is not retail. It's what should Florence be in total."