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New Richmond Town Square manager has big ideas for improving mall [The News-Herald, Willoughby, Ohio](News-Herald (Willoughby, OH) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jul. 19--Greg Parsons remembers the mall as a community center that made a child's eyes light up with even the slightest mention. Parsons, a Cleveland Heights native, went to Richmond Town Square years ago to buy his first Sega Master video game system. Another time, he purchased a cool Batman T-shirt. Parsons rekindled those memories and more this summer when he accepted a job as mall manager. The Uniontown resident's responsibilities include recruiting new retailers, maintaining effective relationships with shoppers and business partners, and upholding the 40-plus-year-old retail center's community image. He'll do all of that while battling depressed consumer spending and competing shopping venues like the popular "lifestyle center" model. But Parsons will draw from a decade of marketing, leasing and property management experience with Beachwood-based Developers Diversified Realty. His duties there included leasing out space at malls and strip centers in Greater Atlanta and in Puerto Rico. Parsons recently sat down with The News-Herald to discuss how that experience will help him with the task in Richmond Heights, the kind of retailers he'd like to see at the Town Square and the standing of the mall's relationships with major tenants like Macy's and Regal Cinemas. QUESTION: You used to come here as a child. What do you remember most from then? ANSWER: I've got several (memories) because I used to come here with my mom, I came here with my dad. Woolworth's was here, Burger King was here, Fun Games was here, all those different stores. I saw "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" here with my family. LensCrafters still has my prescription on file from 20 years ago. Those are the fun, different things I remember about Richmond mall at the time. You never thought about where you'd be 20 years later, but it's just fun to come back and hopefully contribute to somewhat bring back the memories that I remember here." Q: What intrigues you most about this job and the challenge of getting some new and viable retailers to set up shop here? A: I've lived here, but I've never done business here. Having an opportunity to conduct business in your hometown is a homecoming of sorts. That's the fun part. The challenge, in part, is in trying to bring new retailers and concepts in an environment that's not all that conducive to doing so. That's the challenge. How I'm meeting the challenge is three, four times a week leaving the office and visiting retailers, visiting restaurants, whoever it is. Whether it's in Woodmere, Beachwood, Cleveland Heights, University Heights, East Cleveland, Strongsville, Parma, you name it, I'm hitting every possible retail market, and even some places in between, to really find true innovative concepts that I'd like to see here and that will fit a need that our shoppers want. Q: What would you say are some of the mall's assets and some areas that you'd like to improve? A: The major asset with the property is its location. If you look at an aerial picture, it's the only property in Northeast Ohio that has such a strong density of households. Beachwood (Place) doesn't have it, Great Lakes Mall doesn't have it, Strongsville (Mall) doesn't have it. Those are strong retail areas, but the fact of the matter is we have such a concentration of households surrounding this property. It's untouched, and it's a very exciting opportunity that we need to convey. Another asset is the fact that it's a beautiful property. It was renovated nine years ago, and it shows extremely well, better than most in the city. Our challenge today is overcoming the economic conditions that we have. In doing so, I think we have a very strong opportunity to focus on local retailers and local entrepreneurs. What Simon (Property Group, owner of Richmond Town Square) does is they have a retail incubator program. Basically they work with somebody's idea and try to translate that into a store... We have a very strong staff to help any entrepreneur do that. Retail entrepreneurs in Northeast Ohio are very unique in that there's just a ton of concepts and ideas out there. Whether it's through a home-based business or somebody working out of their basement, we want (to) put those people in business at the property. We want to come with an entrepreneurial retail showcase." Q: When you factor in the economy, the lifestyle centers like Legacy Village and Crocker Park, and Internet business, what is the incentive or benefit for (a business owner) to want to come here? A: Here, you're centrally located. Obviously, we have Richmond Heights that is suffering like everybody else, but we have the ability to work on a local basis. We're right next to Highland Heights, who was just ranked No. 18 on Money Magazine's "Best Places to Live," so the location is critical. We have a very diverse population around here that really has a melting pot of different tastes. From that standpoint, it's a very unique opportunity for somebody to come in because you've got every possible demographic realm here. There's always something for somebody. What we need to do is bring those concepts that are going to really draw people from other areas. That's what we want to focus on. Hopefully, in the next three to six months, those will start happening. We're somewhat playing the numbers game in that you need to talk to as many people as you possibly can. Any retailer, networking group, chambers of commerce, you name it, I'm going to be involved in it. Whether it be for meetings, conversations or personal visits, I'm out of this office. It's absolutely essential for us to find that talent and bring it here... Focus on local leasing and really give local entrepreneurs a chance to succeed. Q: Has Simon given you any feel for specific types of stores they want to add or how many they want to add? A: It's going to be conducive to the space we have available. We're not adding any additional square feet. We're working with the confines of what we have... We have the existing tenants we have today, we're not going to disrupt their operations by either bringing in a competing concept or something that is going to affect their business in a negative way. For me, I would love to see a furniture store here. There's a huge void, and we unfortunately lost our gift store (Gorant's Candies, owned by American Greetings). Q: Are you being told to find specific types of stores? A: No. The focus is on me to go find quality retail. There are certain kinds of concepts I'd like to see because I believe there's a void missing that will bring another reason for people to shop here. At the same time, perhaps those industries aren't flourishing right now and might not be looking. What I want may not be what I end up getting. Those dynamics may be outside of my control. Q: How much work is there left to be done? A: You never stop leasing. Whether your mall is 100 percent leased or 50 percent leased, you never stop leasing. When you're running any mall, the job's never done. You'll always be leasing no matter what your occupancy level is. It's how you lease it, is the bigger question. Q: You're also responsible for upholding the community profile and reconnecting with the neighborhood. What are some of the goals associated with that? A: What we'd like to see is using the mall as a venue for community events, whether that be through home improvement expos or something like that, it's going to have an impact on the community. We'll be working with chambers of commerce for events inside the property. From that standpoint, I think we're engaging the right people, and the groundwork is being laid to get those events on the calendar. Also, trying to bring in family-oriented events on the weekdays or weekends that are going to be attractive for Mom and Dad to bring the kids to. One event I can point to specifically for the middle of October is a "Backugan" tournament. For kids, 8 to 12, it's the thing to do. Apparently, there's a whole national tour, but it's missing Ohio entirely, so I realized we had to do something about it. That's the kind of things we have to do. Look at what's missing from Northeast Ohio and try to bring it here. Be creative and do some different things that are going to generate some traffic for the property, but it's also going to be a fun family environment that people will remember. I'd like to bring those memories that I had, and hopefully those families and kids can experience those. We're in a time where we have no business coming to the mall. They either have no disposable income to do so, or there's nothing happening to give them a reason to come. I want to change that. Q: What kind of feel do you have for the relationship between this mall and some of the bigger names we see here like Macy's? Do they play heavily into future plans? A: I can't speak for the tenants themselves, but what I can say is that we have a very strong relationship in a very short period of time. I've made a point to at least sit down and at least introduce myself, and really use that forum as a conversation. It's like, 'Look, I know that times are tough, but let's put the economy aside. What do you want to do?' We can all hide behind the economic condition excuse, but at the end of the day, we all have to run our businesses, no matter what. There's not this 100,000-pound gorilla standing on our backs. The relationship with our anchors is very strong. ...Whether we establish a plan, or really try to understand what their plans are, we'll establish a working relationship to address what the conditions are. Things are positive. While they're working with the economic conditions, everyone is pleased... Richmond Mall has been here for 43 years. It has been through the ups and downs of those retail cycles. With Euclid Square closed, Randall Park Mall closed and Severance no longer a mall, there's always been this perception that this was not a viable market. Contrary to popular belief it is. Through all of it, the property has survived. I'm here to say, we're moving forward. We're going to try to do some different things here that haven't been done before through events, through organizational type of situations, through leasing. To see more of The News-Herald or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.news-herald.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The News-Herald, Willoughby, Ohio Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |