A former ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Authority space in Fairview Heights that has been vacant for four years is finally getting a new tenant, and it’s a business concept becoming increasingly common in the big-box shopping plazas struggling with vacancies left by bankrupt retailers.
Urban Air Adventure Park, a Dallas-based indoor entertainment venue with trampolines, bumper cars, laser tag, obstacle courses, mini-golf and other activities, is targeting the space at the northwest corner of Interstate 64 and Highway 159 for its second St. Louis-area location. It opened a location in Cottleville about a year ago, and local franchisee Brad Heath is eyeing up to three other locations, including in the areas of Chesterfield, Wentzville and Crestwood, Sunset Hills and Fenton.
Businesses such as Urban Air Adventure Park are expanding in part because there’s plenty of spots to choose from.
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“They’re able to get fairly attractive rental rates because there’s not a whole lot of competition for the box spaces right now,†said Mark Kornfeld, managing director of retail services at Sansone Group, who represented Urban Air on the Fairview Heights lease and is looking for space for future St. Louis-area locations.
Businesses such as SkyZone and Urban Air have expanded to hundreds of locations in recent years. Landlords and brokers representing big retail centers are faced with the bankruptcies of big-box anchors ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Authority and Toys R Us while other retailers pull back to stay profitable.
“It’s very tough to find retailers and users to take these large chunks of space that have been left by the big box users that we’ve unfortunately seen go away recently,†Kornfeld said. “That fitness and entertainment category is really the main target for guys like myself on the landlord side that we’re all chasing to fill those boxes, because unfortunately, there’s just not a lot of 40,000- to 50,000-square-foot users out there anymore.â€
For communities such as Fairview Heights that are heavily dependent on retail for their tax base, companies like Urban Air bolster adjacent stores by drawing families and reinvigorating foot traffic. It has already attracted a SkyZone to one of its retail centers.
Fairview Heights Economic Development Director Paul Ellis has made the Fairview Heights Plaza where Urban Air is locating one of his main priorities because “it was really doing poorly.†It’s currently owned by a New York-based receiver, Torchlight Loan Services.
But now the center is “on the upswing,†Ellis said, with two new restaurants moving into former vacant spaces and nearly all the space leased. It’s the second ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Authority the municipality has had to try to fill. ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Authority moved out of the space in the Fairview Heights Plaza to a newer space south of Interstate 64 in the Fairview City Centre before the company filed for bankruptcy. In 2017, that space was filled by Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Even with the turmoil in a retail industry rocked by changing consumer habits and e-commerce, Fairview Heights continues to see itself as a regional retail hub. The Sears in St. Clair Square, for now at least, has survived that iconic retailer’s recently announced lists of closures related to its bankruptcy.
“The challenge is greater than it ever has been, but we’ve had a little experience with this and we seem to be doing it pretty well,†Ellis said.
Next on the list is finding a user for the empty Toys R Us space just off the highway. Though Ellis says Fairview Heights probably has more retail space than it needs and may look for some creative reuse of some of its space, the Toys R Us building is in a prime location he sees as continuing to be used for retail. But getting it on the market depends on the company working through creditor issues in bankruptcy. It’s unclear when that might happen.
Eventually, the glut of big-box retail spaces should be reduced with demolitions, Kornfeld said, and new mixed-use developments that include residential will likely be used to help drive traffic in smaller retail spaces. First, landlords have to get used to the difference in commercial lease rates versus apartment rates, he said. Because there’s a lot more space than there are indoor entertainment venues.
“There’s definitely not enough of them to fill everything,†Kornfeld said.