More evidence of the live-work trend

One way to realize there’s increasing demand for live-work-play(shop) communities is to see what the country’s largest investors are not investing in.

Simon Properties, America’s largest shopping center developer (in other words, shop-only destinations that resulted from live-only/suburban subdivisions), announced last week, “Simon will not be planning anymore enclosed shopping malls for the near future.”

Instead, Simon is building what they’re calling “alls” – mixed-use retail, residential, office and community buildings. Or… “walkable urban-like centers”, in the words of Robert Gibbs, one of the nation’s leading retail experts.

One example of a Simon “all” is Bowie Town Center (see image) in Maryland. It’s very human-scaled, but still heavily dependent on national chains, auto traffic and doesn’t have much mixed-use yet, but it’s a great start compared to what they used to build.

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