Fun City Trampoline Park signed a lease for the entire upper level of the RiverTown Crossings Mall in Grandville, Michigan, taking 74,720 square feet. The renovation and new use of the space outside of typical retail options have garnered this deal the 2024 CoStar Impact Award for lease of the year for West Michigan, as judged by real estate professionals familiar with the market.
Underground Computers of Jenison, Michigan, the owner of the mall, aimed to renovate the anchor store on the property and give it new life. Across the country, store anchors have been closing their doors — Sears, Bed, Bath & Beyond, among others — and mall owners have been aiming to fill the void left by the large tenants. Adapting and renovating the big-box spaces is a relatively new challenge, but a problem that is crucial to solve as malls are typically located in the retail heart of their local communities.
RiverTown Crossings Mall is at the heart of the southwest retail corridor for Grand Rapids, Michigan. Surrounded by thriving retailers such as Target, Costco, Cabela’s and Meijer, the mall has experienced increased vacancy rates like many two-story malls nationwide. The closing of major anchors, coupled with the popularity of Amazon and challenges from the pandemic, hurt foot traffic and increased vacancies.
While renovations were taking place at RiverTown, the landlord was actively looking for entertainment and other high-traffic concepts to bring into the mall property. Multiple entertainment concepts were evaluated, both from a local and national level. An entertainment use appeared to be ideal for this Grandville location. Once completed, the renovation revamped the space for possible new concepts.
Fun City Trampoline will affect the entirety of the Grandville market, as it breathes life back into the mall and provides jobs and entertainment for the local community. Having an entertainment concept in the mall is expected to drive families to visit and boost sales of retailers that have been downsizing at RiverTown mall in recent years. This entertainment concept is expected to boost traffic and significantly reduce one of the largest vacancies in Grandville.
About the Deal: Fun City Trampoline Park signed a 15-year lease for 74,720 square feet of the 157,124-square-foot shopping mall located at 3668 Rivertown Mall Path in Grandville, Michigan. The mall itself is a Class A property, built in 1999, and occupies 9.88 acres.
What the Judges Said: "RiverTown Crossings is a pillar of the Grand Rapids MSA, and this lease serves as a template for mall owners across the country to follow," said Daniel Lewkowicz, senior director at Encore Real Estate Investment Services. Meanwhile, Spenser Robinson, director of real estate at Central Michigan University, said, that this was "the most innovative lease, involving adaptive re-use of the space, revitalization of a core community retail asset and diversification." Alex Cartwright, associate professor of economics at Ferris State University, noted that leasing "an anchor store in an interior mall is among the hardest tasks a leasing agent can do," so this lease "will certainly breathe life into a mall that, while not in a downward spiral yet, was on the edge of a downward spiral. This tenant is an excellent use for this type of property."
They Made it Happen: Jon Geenen of DAR Commercial, Dacheng Weng of CapStar Commercial Realty and Jonathan Bryant of Underground Computers participated in this transaction.