Mid-City Market – March Update
Below, please find a series of photos showing site progress conditions from the week of March 4, 2013.
Since last month’s update, we have moved forward rapidly in the site and building construction at Mid-City Market. At Winn-Dixie, the roof has fully dried in which allows us to release significant interior work including drywall, sheathing, and mechanical/electrical work. We have completed exterior brick work on approximately two-thirds of the building. Currently, we are moving on to the main front entry of the building and will begin to prepare the parking area for paving in the next four weeks.
At the former retail building we are renovating, we have completed the exterior wall stucco, interior wall framing, and the exterior masonry on the front of the building. Before the end of the month, we will begin paving work at the parking area in front of the building. We will be turning both this building and the Pei Wei building over to tenants for their interior buildouts at the beginning of April. The two small-shop buildings fronting N. Carrollton are progressing quickly as well. Roofing work on these buildings is currently being completed. Additionally, the block wall around the street front buildings on the entire site are being poured and formed. Over the next month, we will be working on the courtyards, sidewalks, and storefronts of these buildings, which will be turned over to tenants for their interior buildouts in May.
Masonry of Winn-Dixie Building – 3/7/2013
Masonry going up on Retail Building C – 3/7/2013
Pei Wei Building / Block Wall Construction – 3/7/2013
Aerial of Mid-City Market Under Construction – 3/6/2013
Aerial of Mid-City Market Under Construction – 3/6/2013
Walgreens on Magazine – Update 3/11/13
Magazine St. Frontage
Last full week of work at the Magazine Street Walgreens in New Orleans and it is a flurry of activity inside and out. With one week left, both the Contractor and Walgreens have their work cut out for them, including finishing the front sidewalk and canopy, landscaping and painting the exterior and all the interior shelve stocking and setup. This is a big week and the push is on. By early next week we will have all of our final inspections done and the store opening team will be setting up for a store opening and ribbon cutting.
Hammond Square: Cars, Wine, and Photobooths added up to success
On a very cold Wednesday night, our first annual Lover’s Lane event was a huge success thanks to the many local vendors, car owners and organizations willing to brave the elements! Hammond Square had 40 Classic Cars lined up on Palace Drive outside of businesses from Cato to Menchie’s. There were over 100 people from Hammond and the surrounding area bundled up, but still in the mood to gather with friends and loved ones and revel in the oldies music, classic cars, wine tastings and a warm photo booth. If you are wondering if people enjoyed the photo booth, you can check out the pictures on the Hammond Square Facebook page as proof they did! We went through three cases of wine that night and the bottle selections made by Red, White and Brew seemed to fit the event just right.
Multiple tenants reported increased sales the night of the event. The restaurants were the biggest benefactors as the car owners and event patrons stepped in the heated spaces for dinner and snacks. Increasing traffic to our tenants is an added benefit of these events!
A Tenant Team Spirit award went to Maurices for their great participation in the event. They had live models in their store windows, passed out coupons during the event, and even let their employees try out the photo booth! A close second was the newest tenant at Hammond Square, Obsession. With a new owner, new merchandise and new management, the store passed out cupcakes and provided a sneak peak of all the fabulous clothing they will have available starting in March when they open.
There were some items that could have been improved. After the event I had many people tell me that they did not know about it. We heavily utilized Facebook, e-mail and other online media as our main promoting tools. We had one banner and three small landscape signs on site. Hammond Square is now an open air shopping center instead of an enclosed mall so we lose some of the reach impact that one or two major entrances can prove helpful for.
Because of this observation, signage for the next event will be placed at every entrance. We feel this may reach the crowd that doesn’t check in electronically on a regular basis, but does shop at the Square.
So what is next? Apart from our regularly scheduled Tangi Humane Society pet adoptions on the last day of every month; there is an Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, March 30th! The Golden Oldie Motor Club decided to hold their big Children’s Hospital fundraiser at Hammond Square in the lot by Nagoya and Albasha on the same day as the Hunt. We are taking the success from Lover’s Lane and making this an all-day event for the entire family with the Easter Egg Hunt on Palace Drive starting at 9:30 am and the Car Show participant registration going from 8:00 am – Noon. Hammond Square can only take the credit for the Easter Egg Hunt. Most of the work for this event is done by the Golden Oldies Motor Club who will even have a Kid’s Choice winner for the vehicle picked to be the coolest by the younger judges.
By Hammond Square slowly becoming known for being a social meeting area and tool for the community, we hope that it promotes a general feeling of community throughout Tangipahoa and the surrounding Parishes. As the Square becomes more active with new tenants and with even more successful existing tenants, we hope it will be used as a tool to show how Hammond is growing and changing in the right direction. Shop local. Shop Tangi!
Walgreens on Magazine – Update 3/4/13
The building is humming with activity. At this point Walgreens has been inside the building for almost three weeks setting up shelving and placing fixtures inside the store in anticipation of the late March opening. The scaffolding has been removed from the front of the building and the new sidewalk work and front canopy is the next work tasks in line. The rear of the store is complete except for the installation of the windows, rear entry canopy work, final painting on fence and landscaping.
Things are happening fast, stay tuned for more soon!
Louisiana Well Positioned for Growth in 2013
As the International Council of Shopping Center’s (ICSC’s) State Director for Louisiana, I recently contributed an article for our Quarterly Membership Newsletter that I’d like to share. Read the article below about how well the State of Louisiana has been performing compared to the nation:
It is hard to believe that 2012 is already more than a month behind us. What an exciting time to be in the real estate industry and more specifically the retail segment of the industry. As we enter into 2013, new retail activity in our state continues to be on the rise and the industry has exciting and prosperous times ahead of us. I do not know anyone in our business locally that is not looking at a full pipeline of activity for the coming year. We should consider ourselves extremely blessed to be working in markets that have performed so well over the past few years.
Consider how well the State of Louisiana has performed over the last few years, in contrast to much of the nation.
Employment performance has been significant. At 5.5%, Louisiana’s December 2012 seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate is at a four-year low, tied for 11th lowest rate in the nation and well below the 7.2% Southern average and 7.8% U.S. average. Louisiana’s private sector added 26,800 jobs over the year, extending the state’s streak of private sector employment gains to 28 consecutive months. Compared to the U.S., Louisiana is one of just six states with more jobs now than before the national recession began; and since the official end of the national recession in June 2009, Louisiana has added jobs at a faster rate than both the South and the U.S.
Louisiana’s population is also growing according to the U.S. Census Bureau, experiencing five straight years of net population in-migration, with more people moving to the state than leaving. Louisiana netted over 20,000 people in the last four years and the in-migration gains are largely the result of the state’s economic performance. Compare that to the 15-year period from 1990 to 2005, when the state experienced net domestic out-migration of more than 7,500 people every single year, and one can quickly appreciate how much things have changed. Also, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population growth rate over the last five years through July 1, 2012, was about 23 percent faster in Louisiana than that of the U.S. overall.
Economic competitiveness is reaching new heights. In 2012, Louisiana experienced its best year for business development in the last five years, securing more jobs and investment than in any of the previous four years. The state increased its recruitment of new jobs (up 17 %, to more than 24,000) and its attraction of new capital investment (up 24 %, to $22.3 billion) over the strong performance of 2011. It is incredible that this was achieved against the backdrop of a relatively stagnant U.S. economy. The best is yet to come, according to LED Secretary Stephen Moret. He predicts Louisiana will have at least $50 billion to $60 billion worth of new manufacturing projects under way over the next three to four years, many of which will be announced during the coming 12 to 18 months. In its 2012 economic outlook report, the American Legislative Exchange Council again ranked Louisiana’s economic outlook among that of the top 20 states in the U.S.
Louisiana’s business climate is also improving and people are starting to take notice. In the last five years, Louisiana has improved to its highest-ever position in every major national ranking of state business climates, with no other state exhibiting more improvement. CEOs nationwide voted Louisiana the most improved state for business over the last four years, according to Chief Executive. Louisiana ranked 7th in Site Selection’s business climate report in 2012 and 2011, up from 9th in 2010 and 25th in 2009. Area Development ranked Louisiana #6 among the top states for doing business, ranking #1 in the U.S. for cooperative state government and top 5 for incentives, economic recovery, speed of permitting, workforce training, cost of doing business, business climate and labor climate. Business Facilities ranked Louisiana #5 best business climate in America and Pollina Corporate Real Estate ranked Louisiana’s business climate #16 in 2012, up 24 spots since 2008. Additionally in 2012, the state ranked 2nd in the U.S. (1st in the south) for providing the lowest business tax burden for new firms and 10th in the U.S. (3rd in the south) for mature firms, according to the Tax Foundation.
Significant employment performance, population growth, strong economic competitiveness, and a nationally recognized, improving business climate in Louisiana has well positioned the state as the nation seeks sustained growth in 2013. All of this is good news for retail. And good news for us.
Mid-City Market – February Update
Masonry, Roofing, and Sheeting – Winn Dixie
Storefront Sheeting and Elements – Retail Building C
Since last month’s update, we have moved forward rapidly in the site and building construction at Mid-City Market in New Orleans. At Winn-Dixie, we have finished standing the exterior walls, begun sheeting the walls, have set the roof curbs, and finished installing the re-steel. We have set masonry along the rear wall on the N. Solomon Street side and plan to finish wall sheeting in the next couple of weeks.
At the former retail building we are renovating, we have completed the exterior wall sheeting, interior wall framing, and are sheeting the interior walls. We plan to finish the wall work and finish setting brick for the exterior walls in the next couple of weeks. We will be turning the building over to tenants for their interior buildouts the first week of April. The two small-shop buildings fronting Carrollton are progressing quickly as well. Over the next week, we will be finishing all of the exterior wall framing for these buildings and begin laying the retaining walls. These buildings will be turned over to tenants for their interior buildouts in May, many of these tenants have shorter build out periods. We will be delivering the Pei Wei building the last week of March to Pei Wei for their interior build out work.
