Dinner, movies and colonoscopy at a mall in future
For healthcare companies, softness in the retail market has helped them negotiate favourable leases at malls
New York
THE Runway at Playa Vista in Los Angeles recently added a Whole Foods, a movie theatre, and upscale shops and restaurants - retail centre staples intended to attract affluent shoppers, condo-buyers, and tech companies to the mixed-use development. The next big tenant slated to move in, however, is a little different: A 32,000- square-foot doctors' office, where the Cedars-Sinai Health System plans to house outpatient services, including cardiology and orthopaedics.
While urgent-care centres have been strip-mall staples for decades, the chance to catch dinner, a movie, and a surgical procedure under the same roof is new - and coming soon to a mall near you. The reason is commerce: Mall operators are looking for tenants that trade in entertainment and services to replace the brick-and-mortar retailers slowly being strangled by Amazon.com and its online competitors. Rents, particularly at older malls, are a bargain.
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