Surprisingly, the spaces that typically do the worst business are stores right next to commercial center anchors. Commonly shoppers either visit anchors at the commercial center development, or, they enter at an anchor store and then make a bee-line for the center of the mall, passing most retailers in between. This creates a problem for commercial mall owners.

If you are a tenant in one of these commercial malls, you need not fear. While admittedly there is no silver bullet for leasing woes, a good commercial general contractor can help with this issue. In the case of DBCCI, the company can make some minor changes to a commercial center development that may provide a boost to struggling tenants. This can help shopping mall owners capture higher, more consistent rents.

DBCCI offers four ways mall owners can improve their property with minor commercial center construction projects.

Move the escalators

Changing the flow of a commercial center development is one of the best ways to bring traction to less-visited portions of the mall. Most shopping malls have escalators in the center of the development. By moving escalators to the corners of the shopping center development and adjacent to anchor tenants, shoppers can now spend idle time on escalators and perhaps see stores they would otherwise simply pass. It also gives them a chance to check out both floors of the mall’s hard-to-sell areas.

Install more kiosks around new escalators

Kiosk owners often pay the highest rent per-square-foot in shopping center developments to be in areas with the highest foot traffic. While they are typically drawn to the center of the mall, the new locations of the escalators will create more opportunities as the majority of the mall’s shoppers will pass the kiosks at some point during their shopping trip. The center of the mall will still attract kiosks, but these new high-traffic retail areas will create more opportunities to secure quality rents.

Increase gross leasable area (GLA) by removing decorative pieces

Fountains are nice, but they don’t generate revenue. Most shoppers just fly right by such decorative pieces and never give them a second thought. It’s probably best to initiate an easy shopping center construction job and take these decorations out to increase the mall’s GLA. Shopping mall owners could add a coffee shop or a food station. Both would generate more revenue and probably be more of an attraction to shoppers.

Create an entertainment area for children

While it may not be a direct revenue generator, it can help drive traffic to a specific portion of the shopping center development and also attract certain tenants. By developing a play area for kids in a slow corridor of the mall, mall owners could see foot traffic increase. More importantly, this demographic concentration would appeal to retailers such as toy stores or a children’s clothing store. By bringing targeted shoppers and tenants together, a formerly slow portion of a shopping center development could be revitalized and tenants could have an easier time achieving solid sales.

These are all relatively easy commercial center construction projects that can really benefit tenants, which in turn will help strengthen the balance sheets of mall owners. No commercial center development is perfect, but a good retail general contractor, like DBCCI, can be an owner’s best partner for turning a mediocre mall into a highly-profitable retail development.