There is an adage “nothing is forever” and this applies particularly to shopping centres. In this changeable world, the original market-catchment for a shopping centre may have moved on, changed its form and wealth, rendering the shopping centre that had originally been built to assuage those customer’s needs and aspirations null and void. Imagine building a mall, investing all that money and then, as time passes and as the customer base changes, the mall loses its original importance and relevance.

What this means in real terms is that the mall attracts less customers, who spend less money. Remaining retail tenants who now cannot survive, close-shop and leave, creating vacancies and eventually the mall ‘goes dark’. Reviving a shopping mall that has fallen on bad times requires a comprehensive and careful analysis of the issues at hand and a practical approach to implement remediation measures.

In this article, we have listed a checklist to guide you through the process of identifying problems and potential solution on this subject. This checklist is provided for first step: Identify the issues (problem); second step: Identify the external challenges; and third step: Strategizing & Solutioneering.

Diligently applying this checklist will enable you to garner in the least a 20% growth in footfall and in NOI; with a (minor) renovation and revamp, expect retailer sales to rise greater than 20%.