Portland’s Lloyd Center is about to get a 50 million-dollar face-lift in an effort to keep it relevant in today’s rapidly evolving retail landscape. According to a recent Portland Tribune article, “Reinventing the mall” (January 21, 2016), this investment ‘gamble’ may house a specialty food market, Portland-based restaurants/cafes, and craft businesses. Portland is a leader in the national trend away from large malls and big box stores to smaller locally owned shops. Leland Consulting Group’s Chris Zahas explains some of the reasoning and market logic behind this shift in consumer habits, and he discusses the economic incentives that drive retail (or the lack thereof) in the region. With the addition of thousands of new residents in the Lloyd District, many of them Millennials, the Lloyd Center makeover is evidence of this changing consumer scene.
