| We got in touch with Cousins Properties' EVP Mike Cohn about what's next for the storied developer's retail expansion. The company is already under way with the mixed-use project Emory Pointe here and the Publix-anchored Mahan Village, a 150k SF retail center in Tallahassee. Mike says expect more retail-focused mixed-use projects. Just not in Atlanta. (Mike is one of our high-powered panelists at next week's Bisnow Retail Real Estate Summit at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead. Tickets available here). He says Texas and North Carolina are fertile grounds for new Cousins projects, and the firm is actively seeking sites there. ?We need to reduce our suburban exposure in Atlanta… and why we're looking around Texas and North Carolina,? he says. | ||
| Here's Emory Pointe (rendered in watercolors, we think), which continues its leasing successes, most recently with Marlow's Tavern and Tin Lizzy's. Mike waxed philosophic with us on the changing state of retail. Yes, the Great Recession has affected the industry. But what's affected it more—and continues to—is technology. Particularly, mobile techonology like iPhones. ?Regardless of the recession, had the recession not happened, technology was in the process of changing the way we shopped,? he says. ?The whole world of shopping is essentially in your hand. 10 years ago it was just another distribution channel. Today it's a real threat.? (10 years ago no one would have thought cell phones would evolve like this... but here we are with shopping, games, and the ability to track fugitives.) |
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