Article originally published on ShoppingCenterBusiness.com
The property offers shopping as an experience, with a sense of place.
The 25th anniversary of Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio, provides an excellent opportunity to share best practices in authentic placemaking and experience-creating at a mixed-use development totaling more than 1.7 million square feet. It also allows a candid glimpse into the future, gleaned from operating a leading Midwest destination with more than 30 million annual visitors per year.
One of the keys to success is always looking forward. In the 1950s and 1960s, malls grew because people were coming out of times of deprivation — the Depression followed by the rationing of goods during World War II. Malls in that era gave consumers a reason to get dressed up and get out, but much of the joy was simply in the ability to purchase needed goods.
In the 1990s — when Easton was born — we knew it was about more than creating a place to buy essential things. We predicted that it would be about experiences.
