When American fashion designer Rachel Roy was looking for a place to open her first pop-up this fall, she picked Overland Park’s Oak Park Mall for its “vibrancy.”
Alchemy Bath Co. in Lawrence also opened its first storefront there this year, hoping the “traffic and exposure” would raise the profile of the home-based business. And Cupcakin Bakery did so well as a holiday pop-up, it opened a permanent location and added an event space for children’s parties.
Heading into the holidays, mall vacancies nationally hit 9.1 percent in the third quarter from 8.6 percent in the second quarter, the largest one-quarter jump since 2009, according to data by real estate research firm Reis.
But Oak Park, one of the metro’s last traditional malls, has only a handful of empty spots. Though the future loss of the 200,000-square-foot, three-story Nordstrom in 2021 is “clearly not good news,” according to real estate experts, it does open up opportunities for new destination draws, even on-trend entertainment venues.
(Read more: Joco 913 News)