Area retailers jockey for black dollar
http://www.atlantatribune.com/id174.html
by Keith Laing, Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine
December 2006-January 2007
With the holiday shopping season – and the traditional commercial boon that accompanies it – fast approaching, six Atlanta area malls are working hard to distinguish themselves from nearby competitors and gain your hard earned dollar.
In DeKalb County, 35-year-old South DeKalb Mall – recently rechristened the Gallery at South DeKalb – sits a mere 10 miles from the sparkling new Mall at Stonecrest, which just celebrated its fifth anniversary. Even closer together are the venerable Greenbriar Mall and the three-year old Camp Creek Marketplace, separated by about a mile in South Fulton County. And in the heart of the city, tourists and commuters can choose between historic Underground Atlanta downtown and midtown’s new live, work and playpen Atlantic Station, which lie about four miles apart.
Being located in a black hub like Atlanta, each outlet’s bottom line depends heavily on African-American support. But how far can the black dollar stretch?
Tene Harris sees no limit. Harris, general manager of the Gallery at South DeKalb, says the arrival of the Mall at Stonecrest has had no ill effect on her mall’s performance.
“While competition is healthy, we don’t feel like we need to compete with any new outlet for the African American dollar,” she says. “There is certainly enough to go around. We see the arrival of new outlets as a testament of the progression of our community in that two major retail outlets can sustain so close in proximity. The Gallery at South DeKalb and any other competitor that enters the market will only present options for customers. DeKalb is a phenomenal county to be in business and we are happy to be a viable option to the African American community as well as the other ethnicities who grace us with their support.”
Harris adds that although they are sometimes serving the same community, there is enough room for the South DeKalb malls to be different.
“We have found that there are no two centers with identical retail mixes or shopping experiences,” she says. “The Gallery at South DeKalb is a combination of national chains with an infusion of local and regional retailers that brings community to our shopping experience. So whether its music playing at our exterior entrances or the variety of events we hold with our community partners – we don’t find ourselves competing with new outlets. We stay customer focused in our approach in providing value to this community.”
Donald Bieler, director of marketing at Stonecrest, agrees that his mall and the Gallery at South DeKalb are able to co-exist by being different. Whereas South DeKalb clientele are almost all black, Stonecrest takes advantage of its location along the DeKalb-Rockdale border and draws a more diverse crowd, he says.
“All guests are important to the success of Stonecrest,” he says. “We serve a very diverse market of over 970,000 people.”
Still, he says, 57 percent of Stonecrest shoppers are black. By comparison, Harris estimates as many as 97 percent of South DeKalb’s consumers are African-American. Each views the constituency as vital, and as such, each aggressively attempts to attract it.
At least 10 of Stonecrest’s 135 tenants are black-owned business, as are several of the 130 occupants of South DeKalb, which says it does not track lease agreements by ethnicity.
“(We market to black consumers) through exclusive events and entertainment promoted through targeted direct mail, print advertising, and radio and TV campaigns,” Bieler says.
He also touts the impact the mall has had had on the predominantly black surrounding community as a driving force in its appeal to black consumers. Stonecrest is just down the street from the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, one of the southeast’s largest black churches.
“The 1,100 acres of Stonecrest was worth $4,000,000 prior to our 2001 opening,” he says. “Today, the value exceeds $450,000,000 as reported by the Office of DeKalb Economic Development.”
Harris says the Gallery at South DeKalb is an anchor of the black community, too.
“Obviously all of our customers are important to us but our African-American customers are essential to our overall success,” Harris says. “Centrally located in the south east corridor of DeKalb County, where a large number of African Americans reside, we are positioned to support a strong African American base. We’ve been a popular destination in DeKalb for over 35 years – our success is attributed to the loyal support of black consumers.”
To keep it that way, Harris says, the Gallery at South DeKalb tries to keep itself in touch with the black community.
“We pay attention to the changing trends in regards to fashion, merchandise and services and make every effort to accommodate our customer’s variety of tastes and to meet their needs,” she says. “In addition, we host a plethora of events and support community partnerships that enhance the shopping experience of our customers.“
DeKalb Chamber of Commerce president Leonardo McClarty agrees that by so heavily emphasizing black consumers, the Gallery at South DeKalb has positioned itself to have success in spite of the growing popularity of the Mall at Stonecrest. McClarty says that both malls can continue to be viable for the foreseeable future.
“The two really haven’t affected each other,” he said. “I remember talking to previous mall management at South DeKalb, and they initially felt like once Stonecrest opened, they were going to get a much bigger hit than they ended up getting. I think they had slump the first month that Stonecrest opened, but after that, it was back to business as usual. That shows that there are enough people in the area that they can support two malls.”
McClarty adds that he did not think that tying itself so closely to urban appeal popular among young African-Americans would impact the Gallery at South DeKalb’s standing among other segments of the black community – or the community at large.
“I don’t think urban is bad,” he said. “It is what it is. It’s a matter of who you are catering to.”
He cautions, however, that to continue to have success, the Gallery at South DeKalb would have to continue to be flexible.
“The only thing that will be interesting will be if trends change from the standpoint of urban wear,” he said. “If all of a sudden its not hot, if the mall can’t change with whatever is the new, latest fashion to capitalize, that would be way it could be hurt (by the urban focus).”
McClarty also agrees that Stonecrest’s location is a strategic plus for attracting customers.
“When you look at Stonecrest, because they pull (shoppers) from DeKalb as well as Rockdale and Morgan County going toward Augusta, they have a slightly varied customer base,” he said.
The Stores Next Door
On the other end of town, Atlanta’s oldest mall has a new neighbor. Forty-year-old Greenbriar Mall has been joined in south Fulton County by the Camp Creek Marketplace, an outdoor strip mall that opened for business in 2003. Less than two miles separate the two shopping centers.
Despite Greenbriar’s long-standing presence, Elaine McLaney, vice-president of property management for the Retail Planning Corporation, which manages Camp Creek Marketplace, says it was a needed addition to the community.
“There’s a need for each of our particular tenants,” she says. “We saw a need and answered the call, so our stores are doing well. The community is supporting the Camp Creek Marketplace because it’s convenient for them. It saves them from having to go to malls or to downtown Atlanta. There’s everything you could think here: Food, hair salons, financial institutions and books. It’s just a one-stop shopping spree.”
Among those stores are Target, Lowe’s, Ross and BJ’s Wholesalers. Greenbriar counters with Macy’s, Burlington Coat Factory and AMC Magic Johnson Theatres. Both rely heavily on black consumers for success; McLaney says that a majority of Camp Creek’s customer base is black, as is Greenbriar’s, which is as high as 95 percent, according to its director of marketing Gwendolyn Motley.
Additionally, Motley says that 30 percent of Greenbriar’s 100 stores are black-owned, while McLaney says that 95 percent of Camp Creek’s 60 stores are minority-owned or operated.
With those facts in mind, both malls have gone to great lengths to make themselves a part of the community they serve.
“We jumped to the community and schools to participate in whatever promotions that they need or provide whatever help they need,” McLaney says. “We sponsor trips for students going to Selma, Ala and also promote local high school bands. We reach out to feed the hungry; we’ve always been sponsor for them and we help sponsor the city of East Point with Toys for Tots every year.”
“Greenbriar is a black mall,” adds Michael Weinberger, the mall’s general manager. “That is our market. It’s to our benefit to provide goods and services that are going to make them happy. We’re out there looking for kinds of tenants that are going to make African-American customers happy on a daily basis.”
Rick Carson, a development partner with Hendon Properties, which recently purchased Greenbriar Mall in a joint venture with the Toronto-based Dundee Realty Corporation, adds that the community – and the mall – also benefit from Camp Creek’s success.
“The Camp Creek Marketplace represents a first foray in the southwest Atlanta market by a number of retailers,” Carson says. “Many of them are putting their toe in water to see if it work out for them. It took awhile for that development to take hold, but many of those retailers are doing well, which them to say ‘if I can do well, may I should look at some other areas in the African-American community.’ As Camp Creek does well, it’s a further selling point of why Greenbriar makes sense.”
Carson adds that southwest Atlanta is ripe for the enough growth to would sustain both Greenbriar and Camp Creek for years to come.
“Our interest in Greenbriar from start is that we see this trade area experiencing a very nice influx of new residential development,” he says. “It only makes sense that those people have better places to shop. There’s a long way to go, but we’re excited about the possibilities.”
South Fulton Chamber of Commerce president Leslie Hamrick agrees that housing development patterns in southwest Atlanta are encouraging for both Greenbriar Mall and the Camp Creek Marketplace.
“In South Fulton, there’s been void of retail establishments, but with the surge of new housing and new wealth in south Fulton, there are new rules that are going to apply,” she says. “Greenbriar has been in south Fulton for awhile and Camp Creek is relatively new, but was done in accordance with new housing starts and that has helped. I think retail follows housing and when it’s done in a planned manner, it both creates a healthy retail hub as well as services needs of homes and business surrounding it.”
Hamrick says she sees that beginning to happen in southwest Atlanta.
“I think they are spaced far enough apart that they all should be able to not just survive, but be able to thrive,” she says. “By the time a lot of the (new stores) are up and running, there will be additional population to help support them.”
Downtown Change of Heart
Meanwhile, in the heart of Atlanta, two unconventional shopping outlets are vying for a place in the hearts of the city’s visitors and residents.
A historic landmark with roots in the antebellum south, Underground Atlanta first opened as entertainment and retail center in the 1960s and began existing its current form in 1989. Today, it sits less than five miles south of Atlantic Station, Atlanta’s newest destination, which recently celebrated its first anniversary.
But Underground Atlanta general manager William Ciccaglione says that Atlantic Station’s success is good for everyone in the city – his establishment included.
“The development of Atlantic Station is great addition to the city of Atlanta,” he said. “With all the residential units it brings to downtown, it means additional shoppers. Everybody feeds from each other. It’s an additional thing to go experience for people to have good time while they are in Atlanta. The more the merrier.”
He adds that the differences between Underground Atlanta and Atlantic Station are pronounced enough for them to simultaneously thrive.
“We’re really two different animals,” he says. “The audience we’re trying to reach are tourist and downtown workers, so the merchandise we have here is different for most part from what they have at Atlantic Station. They have a greater number of national retailers and they have actual department stores. We don’t have that here at Underground Atlanta. It wasn’t built to have that kind of retail. Underground Atlanta was built around an entertainment concept, so our shopping and dining will be somewhat different than Atlantic Station’s. Atlantic Station certainly has those elements, but it’s really a live, work and play deal.”
Atlantic Station’s director of marketing Brian Leary takes it a step further, saying that the two facilities play off each other.
“What we’re doing at Atlantic Station and what the folks are doing at Underground Atlanta are complimentary,” he says. “We’re all working to make Atlanta a better city. (It) is one of the great cities in the United States, so there’s enough for everyone. Underground Atlanta’s focus is on entertainment and late night activities, and that’s not what we want to be about. We’re not a 24-hour city; at most we’re an 18-hour city. We want people to go to bed at some point.”
Leary adds that Atlantic Station’s decision to build so close to Underground Atlanta was not a declaration of war.
“We’re no closer to Underground than we are to the heart of Buckhead,” he says. “We’re in midtown, the heart of everything.”
Location also affects the shopping centers’ clientele. Perhaps even more so than their counterparts to the east and south, Underground Atlanta and Atlantic Station aim to attract a wide variety of customers.
“We reach out to everybody,” Ciccaglione says. “The city of Atlanta is an international tourist destination, so we have a mix of all kinds of people that are here at Underground Atlanta. We’ve got Asian, Indian, African American, Caucasian and Latino customers. We market the property as being part of a great international city. All of customers are very, very important to us.”
The same is true of Atlantic Station, Leary says.
“The folks showing up here look like the folks all over Atlanta,” he says. “They’re black, they’re white, they’re Indian, they’re gay, and they’re straight. We’re really excited about that.”
So much so, he adds, that Atlantic Station does not seek demographic information on its 150,000 weekly visitors.
“We’re not interested in (keeping track of who’s coming),” Leary says. “We just think that if you create a place that’s open, folks will take ownership of it. Knock on wood, it’s working.”
Atlantic Station’s general manager Roma Williams agrees, saying that her facility’s crowds grow more diverse by the day.
“We have events that we do every year that crosses all categories,” she says. “Atlantic Station is a dynamic place to meet and greet Atlanta. Because of the way we’re designed, we create opportunities for people to come and gather, shop and dine, browse and bring their family members when they come into town for holidays.”
Leary says that ten percent of Atlantic Station’s 50 occupants are minority-owned businesses. By comparison, 15 percent of Underground Atlanta’s 120 tenants are black-owned companies, Ciccaglione says. He adds that at least half of Underground’s visitors are black.
Ciccaglione says that Underground’s black-owned companies play a large role in luring those African-American consumers to the mall.
“Our individual tenants have their own strategies to target African-Americans consumers,” he says.
He adds that Underground itself does try to attract black shoppers.
“We will go after and target family reunions, conferences and conventions,” he says. “We also (target black consumers) through events and entertainment on our property. We hold a Heritage Arts Festival and Vendor Market every year and when T.D. Jakes comes into town, we usually partner with him.”
Leary says Atlantic Station values its black customers, too.
“They’re hugely important,” he says. “Atlanta’s overall success owes a great deal to its thriving, dynamic black community and as Atlanta goes, Atlantic Station goes. We consider ourselves very fortunate to be apart of downtown that the black community has accepted as a place to shop, eat and have fun. Early on (in Atlantic Station’s development), the mayor communicated to us the value of creating an inclusive community. She said if you do it and do it right, it will be successful. We have followed her lead and placed great value in inclusion.”
