Joe Coradino is the ultimate mall rat.
His job requires it.
As chief executive officer of Pennsylvania Real Estate
Investment Trust (PREIT), Coradino oversees 35 enclosed shopping centers,
mostly up and down the East Coast, including some of this region's largest and
best known, among them Cherry Hill, Plymouth Meeting, the Gallery at Market
East, Exton Square, and Willow Grove Park.
Who better, then, to address retail trends as part of the
Executive Speaker Series at Temple University's Fox School of Business.
Coradino spent the bulk of his talk there Wednesday
educating his audience of MBA students on the art of remaking malls, which have
been a staple of American life since the 1970s, but that, like many things from
that decade, need a bit of updating to be relevant today.
He declined, however, to get into specifics about his firm's
latest renovation project, the Gallery, pleading Securities and Exchange
Commission regulations regarding a CEO's responsibilities to shareholders of a
publicly held company.
As a result, Coradino offered no details beyond what already
is known: that PREIT now owns a three-block stretch of East Market Street and
is in the process of reinventing the Gallery with new retailers and a possible
new direction heavy on fast food and fashion.
Whatever the end result, it appears certain to contribute to
a critical mass of announced projects along East Market, including a
residential tower at Seventh and Market Streets and a $500 million remake of a
section of Center City bordered by 11th and 12th, Market and Chestnut Streets.
The hope is to turn a rather dowdy area into a downtown
destination.
Which, by coincidence, is what Coradino said his firm tried
to do with the suburban malls it owned: Replicate a downtown experience with
restaurants, theaters, even health-care centers - activities beyond simply
shopping.
"You need to see a mall as a place where people do more
than shop," he said. "It is a place you go to have experiences."
And so PREIT tries to provide them. For good reason.
"Our studies show if you go to the mall for dinner or
the theater, 70 percent of the time you make an ancillary purchase,"
Coradino said. "Shoppers who go simply to shop make purchases 50 percent
of the time."
That's right, you're more likely to buy something when
you're simply having an evening out.
Beyond touting the magic of malls, Coradino offered a
variety of insights gleaned from years in retail and corporate leadership.
For instance, he bemoaned the fact that he no longer shared
in the hands-on fun he experienced when, as an operations manager, he was on
the front line in the remaking of a shopping center.
"You become CEO, and it's more nose in, hands
out," he said. "I'm not going to do. Once you start doing, you are
not doing your job."
He also was critical of the state of high-end retail in the
city, noting that its shortcomings were an impediment to luring more
international tourism.
"Philadelphia does not have great retail," he
said, before rattling off better places for high-end shopping. "Kansas
City has better retail than Philadelphia."
Coradino smiled.
"We think that is an opportunity."
Source: Philly.com
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