Specialty Retailers Add to The Greene’s Special Experience
Beavercreek, Ohio — While the recent economic downturn has created challenges for retailers around the country, The Greene in Dayton, Ohio, has responded with innovative leasing strategies and creative outreach initiatives that have paid dividends. At a time when many retailers are downsizing or holding plans to open new stores, The Greene has maintained both a high occupancy level and a vibrant, engaging tenant mix by taking a flexible and proactive approach to integrating new tenants into the award-winning center’s existing roster.
Much of this success can be attributed to Heidi A. Maybruck, Principal of The Maybruck Group, who represents Steiner + Associates (developer of The Greene) across the country developing these relationships with specialty retailers. The Maybruck Group has reached out to local and regional businesses and created new opportunities for a core group of specialty tenants—unique retailers who have helped to contribute a distinctive regional character to the center and have reaffirmed The Greene’s status as a true community center.
The popularity and success of the most prominent new tenants—Cake & Ice Cream Children’s Boutique, Life In Letters Gallery, JennaClaire Handbag Studio, and Gallery on The Greene—have been noteworthy, and several of these exciting retailers are likely to extend their leases and become long-term residents at The Greene. This impressive group of entrepreneurial tenants has been a perfect fit for The Greene, which in turn has provided them with an ideal forum: an iconic regional destination where they can expand their clientele and broaden their appeal. More than just an economic success story, these tenants have managed to further diversify what was already a dynamic and appealing tenant mix.
Cake & Ice Cream Children’s Boutique, which occupies a 1,300-square-foot space behind the Funny Bone Comedy Club, sells designer children’s and infants clothing and accessories. Owner and founder Qianya Sinclair relocated to The Greene from a former mall kiosk location, and the subsequent expansion has prompted her to expand her product line, broaden her selection, and add a “party room” to host events for pint-sized celebrations. A Dayton native, Sinclair has been quoted as saying that the move to The Greene was “… a better opportunity to grow my business. I saw a lot of interest in what I had on the cart and I wanted to take the business to the next level.”
Life in Letters Gallery, which opened the doors to its 1,500-square-foot space in November, is the brainchild of another Dayton native: 21-year-old entrepreneur Corey Weaver. Life in Letters’ unique offerings feature personalized artwork distinguished by images of “letters” that occur in life, nature and architecture. Captured by the lens of Weaver and his team and professionally framed on-site, the distinctive artwork makes for a unique addition to The Greene’s retail offerings.
At JennaClaire Handbag Studio, another new specialty tenant, shoppers can find handbags designed with an equally personal touch. The custom handbag maker, which moved to an expanded 1,700-square-foot location at The Greene in September, offers 30 styles of bags and 150 fabric choices. Shoppers are able to select their own unique design, and the bags are hand-sewn locally and delivered within four weeks. Storeowner Daina Levine, who named the store after her daughter, has even designed and sold bags to celebrities like Sheryl Crow and Mandy Moore.
At Gallery on The Greene, where owner Cathy Pearson opened a 2,700-square-foot store last July, the shelves are stocked with a similarly diverse and original selection of fine art décor and gifts. From paintings, sculptures and prints to jewelry and decorative fused and blown glass, the unique products at Gallery on The Greene have been garnering rave reviews from thrilled and inspired shoppers.
The success of these specialty tenants at The Greene is a credit to the hard work, creativity and skill of their owners, but is also the result of perfect match between products people and place. The Greene’s ability to create a mixed-use environment where familiar national names seamlessly intermingle with local and regional tenants is a testament to the Steiner + Associates vision of a true community center. By designing, building, leasing and programming the kind of dynamic mixed-use destination that is both a regional centerpiece and a signature local icon, Steiner has been able to provide the ideal environment for exciting new concepts to flourish.
About The Greene
The Greene was developed by Steiner + Associates, the co-developer of Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio. Opened in August of 2006, the 72-acre new town center features pedestrian-friendly streetscapes, open-air gathering spaces, fountains and parks for children, in addition to best-in-class retail, entertainment and dining tenants.
About Steiner + Associates
Founded in 1993, Steiner + Associates is a full-service real estate development company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio that specializes in the creation of New Urban Retail Town Centers. To date, Steiner + Associates has completed more than six million square feet of retail and mixed-use development, including Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio; Zona Rosa in Kansas City, Missouri; Bayshore in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; The Greene in Dayton, Ohio; Peninsula Town Center in Hampton, Virginia; among others.
