Scenario 1: Experience

Real Estate Consulting Firm AT Kearney Predicts one potential future for malls is:   

“Think of this as a take on the traditional “flagship store experience.” Instead of a retailer, the anchor here is a compelling social experience—perhaps an indoor ski slope, roller coaster, concert space, or museum providing immersive, experience-based entertainment. It could also be home to specialty anchors like Bass Pro Shop, Lowe’s, or REI, where discovery, education, and experience are key components of the brand experience. Destination centers in operation today include Xanadu in Spain, the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai, and the American Dream Center under construction in New Jersey and Miami.”

Scenario 2: Residential

“Retaildential” spaces target a specific consumer segment: say, young urban hipsters, single-and-staying-that-way 40-somethings, or retirees. These highly curated “life-stage centers” will offer a demographic-specific and appropriate set of retail, restaurants, entertainment, and services. For example, in senior-focused malls, senior housing would be augmented by medical services, pharmacies, exercise facilities, lawyers specializing in age-specific law, accountants specializing in estate planning, and community rooms. In Japan, developers such as Aeon Co. are already repurposing some of their malls to address the needs of that country’s advanced aging population."

Scenario 3: Dead, Gone and Buried

Forbes cites the dismal decline of one of America’s largest malls

Randall Park Mall in Ohio. When it opened in 1976, Randall Park Mall was briefly the world’s biggest shopping center. It quickly lost relevance however, and by 2000, Randall Park Mall’s vacancy rate was 92%. Fast forward to 2017 when it was revealed that Amazon was constructing a 855,000 shipping center on the same site. Online triumphs over offline, or “software eats retail” as Netscape founder and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen memorably put it. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Scenario 4: The Future

"Westfield’s Destination 2028’ vision, developed with the help of a panel of experts including a futurologist, fashion technology innovator, retail specialist and experimental physiologists.

As wellness becomes a top priority among consumers, the shopping centre of the future will include a ‘betterment zone’ where visitors can reflect in a mindfulness workshop, and tranquil green space both indoors and out. Meanwhile, allotments and farms will give visitors the chance to pick their own produce for their meal, while a network of waterways will offer not only an alternative route around the centre but access to watersports – one of the many recreational activities that will be available for visitors," writes Fashion Network.

Scenario 5: Mixed Use

Decision makers in RI and Brookfield need to begin to plan the future of the Providence Place Mall. The indicators are clear — the mall is dying. It is less of a hub. The future could be determined here in Rhode Island. Retain retail of the first floor, build a Providence Campus for the University of Rhode Island on the second floor, transform the third floor to residential or dormitories, and leverage the movie theaters for event space and auditoriums.

Or, make the first floor a sport arena or a …

Regardless, Rhode Island must begin to show some vision before reality determines the future unilaterally.