Mayfaire: The new Downtown?
Nov 24, 2012 (Menafn - Star-News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --It was blustery and cold this mid-November day, not the perfect weather to go shopping outdoors. But Paul and Chris Sipson of Hampstead had braved the chill to come to Mayfaire Town Center.
Why?
"The stores that are here," Paul said as the wind whipped across the parking lot. "Our grandchildren like Claire's and Justice. We come for Christmas presents."
And location was a major factor, Chris said.
Location -- plus upscale demographics and room for development -- are making the Mayfaire area more and more attractive for not only retail businesses and shoppers, but other commercial development as well.
Local real estate experts say a critical mass is building that is making not just Mayfaire Town Center but the wide collection of businesses along Military Cutoff -- Landfall Center and the Forum, for instance -- the rising star of commerce in Wilmington.
Some would go further.
"It's the new downtown," said Nicholas Silivanch, vice president of retail, leasing and acquisitions at Coldwell Banker Commercial Sun Coast Partners.
To Ash Aziz, owner of Circa Restaurant Group -- including Circa 1922 in historic downtown -- it's the proximity to Wrightsville Beach, Landfall and summer traffic that has landed five out of six of his restaurants in the Mayfaire area.
The area has one of the highest disposable incomes in the area, he said. The affluent and gated Landfall residential development was the catalyst for much of the corridor's growth.
And his customers are within two to three miles of his businesses, Aziz said.
So a new downtown?
"I agree 100 percent," said New Hanover County Commissioner Jason Thompson, who lives just off Military Cutoff. "The tax base by itself was like a mini-city within our city."
In 2012, the ownership of Mayfaire Town Center will pay nearly 1 million in property tax on 46 parcels, said the center's director of operations, Sue Rice. Management of Independence Mall did not return a call seeking their tax payments.
Midtown's strength
It's all not to say, however, that other areas of Wilmington are losing their luster.
Downtown now has the Wilmington Convention Center and retains its large collection of boutiques, restaurants and bars. And the area near Independence Mall and along Oleander Drive, long one of the city's preeminent retail corridors, has seen an influx of new grocery stores.
"The mall is always a muscle to be flexed," said Hansen Matthews, a partner with Maus Warwick Matthews & Co. commercial real estate in Wilmington.
In fact, a look at Census Bureau statistics shows that the ZIP code containing the mall, 28403, outstrips Mayfaire's 28405 -- though to be fair 28403 includes the South College Road corridor near the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
In 2010, the latest figures available, there were 2,031 business establishments in 28403, including about 400 retail businesses.
In Mayfaire's ZIP code, by comparison, there were only 1,258, including 217 retail establishments. The ZIP runs from Eastwood Road and Market Street on the south to the Ogden area to the northeast, north to Interstate 140 and west to downtown Wilmington.
Midtown and the Independence Mall area will see redevelopment, said Mayor Bill Saffo, himself a real estate broker.
The grocery stores are a good example of that, he said.
Whole Foods is in a redesigned strip center called Oleander Place, Harris Teeter has expanded within Hanover Center and Trader Joe's will open Friday on a piece of land at South College Road and Oleander Drive that has sat empty for years.
"Arguably, it is suddenly the strongest market for grocery retail," Matthews said.
There's even been development on empty land with construction of the new headquarters of Live Oak Bank near Independence and Shipyard boulevards.
Additionally, downtown's northern riverfront has key land for redevelopment -- part of it at one time mentioned as the site of a minor-league baseball stadium.
A lifestyle center
But Mayfaire is the wave of the future, at least near term, real estate experts said.
Another factor on the side of Mayfaire is that Mayfaire Town Center is a so-called lifestyle center -- with shops that open to the outside and sidewalks that make it appear to be a downtown. It even has a Main Street.
Retail experts said that form of shopping center is now the preferred model over traditional indoor malls.
Several businesses have locations in both Independence Mall and Mayfaire Town Center, including but not limited to Belk, Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works, Sunglass Hut, Reeds Jewelers and Justice.
And there's not much existing retail space left in the area, Silivanch said.
He said that over the past few months he's leased space in Mayfaire, Lumina Station and Landfall Shopping Center.
"When you consider the complete span of uses -- retail, restaurant, office, hospitality," Matthews said, "the Mayfaire vicinity will continue to be the location of choice for most developers for next five to 10 years.
"Either through design or happenstance they have been able to blend all four of those commercial categories into their submarket over the last decade."
Well beyond retail
Add banking and financial services to that mix.
The Mayfaire area now sports 15 banks, Matthews said, including Bank of the Ozarks, North State, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, PNC, Crescent State Bank and BB&T.
Financial services and wealth management practices have followed. Add to that numerous real estate agencies, including the headquarters of Intracoastal Realty, Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage Real Estate and Century 21 Sweyer & Associates.
The area also has several hotels ranging from mid-priced and up, Matthews said. "They've got hospitality well-covered.
"That submarket has seen more new office and upper-end office than any other area of the county and will continue to be a place where office developers want to build."
For instance, developer Steve Anderson is building three office buildings, all three stories with around 40,000 square feet each on Mayfaire Town Center land.
His Mayfaire I is filled, Mayfaire II has one small space left, and he already has serious interest from major tenants for Mayfaire III, which is in the permitting stage.
Health care companies and medical practices make up a sizable chunk of Anderson's tenants, and one prospective tenant is considering a floor and a half in Mayfaire III, Anderson said.
And about 60 percent of his Howe Creek Landing II, north of the shopping center, is occupied by medical tenants, and the same goes for 25 percent of Howe Creek Landing I. Anderson developed Howe Creek Landing and most of the medical tenants came in 2009 and 2010, he said.
Medical offices often are following the population and reflect new ways of doing business.
"We're moving away from the traditional, (where you) put in the doctor's office and wait for the patients to come," said Chris Bunch, chief operating officer of Wilmington Health.
"We're placing ourselves where the patients are -- to make it easier for the patients to get in."
He added that Mayfaire is a well known, high-volume area.
"The brand 'Mayfaire' is recognized regionwide," Anderson said.
"In Charlotte and South Carolina, if you mention Wilmington, Mayfaire is going to come up."
Wayne Faulkner: 343-2329
On Twitter: @bizniznews
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