September 2008 VOL. 2

Live, Work, Play… and Learn:
New mixed-use projects include civic, cultural and educational space

With a 100,000-square-foot library and a 40,000-square-foot community center, Rockville Town Center takes the whole concept of mixed-use to a new level. The 15-acre project, located in Rockville, Md., offers the typical mixed-use fare of retail space and residential units situated within an office environment.

But, the flagship Montgomery County Library, with its contemporary design, public meeting rooms and a coffee shop, and the Arts and Innovations Center, which houses the Metropolitan Center for the Visual Arts, bring a level of traffic and energy to Rockville Town Center that other mixed-use projects long for, but rarely achieve.

Today, many developers believe that the best mixed-use properties incorporate civic, cultural or educational components such as a library, museum or even a college campus. As a result, these expanded mixed-use projects – those that could be described as "live, work, play, learn" – are popping up across the nation, in both urban and suburban areas.

In Kent, Wash., for example, Tarragon Development's Kent Station is anchored by an AMC Theater and Green River Community College. The college has occupied 22,000 square feet in the open-air center since 2005, bringing about 500 people to Kent Station daily.

"We've had more requests for this kind of work in the past three years than we had in the previous 20 years combined," says Valdis Zusmanis, director of Atlanta-based planning and landscape architecture firm HGOR's Urban Design studio. One such project in Wachovia Corporate Center in downtown Charlotte – a new mixed-use project that includes Wachovia Corp.'s global headquarters, along with retail and residential space. It will also house the Afro-American Cultural Center, the Mint Museums, the Beckler Museum of Modern Art and the 1,200-seat Knight Theater.

"Wachovia Corporate Center brings civic and cultural components together with other uses on a scale we've never seen before," Zusmanis notes, adding that the project spans more than one entire downtown block. "Ultimately, these uses are complementary and help create a real sense of place."

Generating more foot traffic

As most developers and urban planners point out, mixed-use isn't a new concept. In fact, most large downtown areas are populated with buildings that have residential units or office space on top of ground-floor retail space. But outside of urban areas, mixed-use development was rare – at least until suburban bedroom communities decided to develop town centers.

Invariably, these newly-built town centers offer plenty of retail, with a good bit of office space and residential units thrown in for good measure. Some even include a hospitality component. And, while the residential piece adds a degree of vibrancy to an otherwise strictly commercial project, most mixed-use developments could benefit from the extra "umph" created by a museum or junior college, says Michael Sullivan, a senior principal with Looney Ricks Kiss who is located in Jacksonville, Fla. and heads up the firm's mixed-use design workgroup.

"When you're able to collect those uses, facilities experience a much higher level of use," Sullivan explains. "These civic uses – which are accessible to everyone in the community –become destination anchors. With them, there's a better chance that people who come to library on Saturday morning for children's storytime, for example, will end up strolling around the project, having lunch and patronizing one of the retailers. The activity increases."

Sullivan is currently working on a mixed-use, library-anchored development in Baton Rouge, La., a metro area with about 800,000 residents. Dubbed the Village of Rouzan, the project is being developed by local firm JTS Development. It sits on 25 acres and will include 15 buildings.

"The library is probably the biggest focus of our attention even though it's not part of the project's pro forma and the developer is basically giving the land to the library," Sullivan says. He contends that mixed-use projects that add the "learn" element to "live, work, play" have a better chance at long-tem success – something that all developers and owners want for their projects.

Most urban planners agree. "A lot of developers expect the retail piece to attract visitors, but for most people, retail is an optional activity," points out Michael Brendle, a principal with Denver-based design firm RNL. "Civic, cultural and educational facilities are places where people want and need to go. They're incredibly powerful because they can bring in a wider portion of the community including students or families that might not normally visit a particular project or area."

Community benefits

The inclusion of libraries, museums and colleges in mixed-use properties doesn't just benefit developers and owners, either. For cash-strapped municipalities, organizations and institutions, the benefits are considerable, experts note.

With few exceptions, most cities and towns are struggling to pay for the basics such as emergency services. They're stretched thin trying to find ways to finance critical operations like the expansion of their waste water treatment plants and such. As a result, important community projects such as libraries and cultural centers are often scrapped unless municipalities can figure out alternative funding.

Most non-profit organizations and many educational institutions face the same financing challenges when it comes to expansion. And, that’s where commercial developers and mixed-use projects come into play. "When you're able to package other uses within mixed-use projects, it's a win-win for everyone, particularly the community," Zusmanis says.

Consider Boricua College – the four-year university wanted to consolidate several college campuses scattered throughout New York City into one five-acre location in the Bronx. The school, which happens to be the first private liberal arts college in the U.S. specifically designed to the meet the educational needs of the Hispanic community, couldn't pull together the financing needed for the campus.

By partnering with Atlantic Development Group LLC and combining the college campus with 689 units and 47,000 square feet of retail space, Boricua College was able to build its new campus, which will include a 120,000-square foot building that will house office space for academic, administrative and student services, as well as a museum and cultural center, a 350-seat auditorium, science and computer labs, classroom space, and a library.

"Basically, the college piece is subsidized by the commercial elements," says Marc Altheim, founder and principal of Atlantic Development Corp.

Similarly, New York City's Museum of African Art will be located in a new building that is part of a 300,000-square-foot mixed-use project. "The Museum had limited financial capabilities and saw the opportunity to partner with developers who not only had the expertise, but the financial ability to develop the project," says Judith Barr, assistant vice president of development for the New York City Economic Development Corp. The City has committed $12 million toward the construction of the Museum, which will occupy 85,000 square feet in the project, which is being developed by Sydney Fetner Associates and Brickman Associates.

"So many projects that we're doing today have some kind of public space associated with them," Barr says, adding that many developers have agreed to include public uses in their projects in exchange for being able to build at a higher density.

And, in some cases, cities have started to require that developers include some type of civic or public use in their projects. "In the history of planning and zoning, there have been a lot of cases when municipalities have asked developers to set aside open space or provide sewer as a condition of their project being approved," Barr notes. "Requiring a civic use is almost an extension of that bartering process where the private developer makes a private investment for the benefit of the public."