Good Growth - Garden and other projects under way at Holland Town Center

Good things are growing in the Holland Town Center.

At the center of the plaza at 12330 James St., local nonprofit group Eighth Day Farm is cultivating 1.3 acres of asphalt into an urban garden. The group hopes to see a produce stand go up in July or August, where consumers can buy vegetables.

The thriving farm is a metaphor for the liveliness that developers hope the once-struggling mall will embody.

And it’s just one face of a visible transformation that the property is undergoing in the hands of the Virginia-based SugarOak Management, a property development firm. A major tenant, an independent Planet Fitness franchise, opens this week in 22,000 square feet of space. Harvest Antiques and Collectibles and Home Decor, a tenant at the center for 16 years, is moving to a more desirable location.

The Holland Town Center is in the third year of a roughly five-year turnaround plan, according to Town Center spokesman Drew Durham. The signs of progress are easy to see.

From pavement to vegetables

“We’re growing a variety of things,” said Jeff Roessing, farm manager and sole full-time employee of Eighth Day Farm. Besides a small number of strawberries, “it’s pretty much all annual vegetables, with a few herbs.”

Roessing said that the Holland Town Center requested the partnership and paid for most of the materials needed to - in reverse of the familiar song - produce a gardener’s paradise where someone else had already put up a parking lot. Eighth Day Farm, which farms at a total of three sites in the Holland area, is now seeking to further develop the Town Center farm. The farm is seeking to raise $16,000 in donations through the social media funding website kickstarter.com.

Originally called the Holland Outlet Center, the property was purchased in July 2009 for $2.8 million by SugarOak Management, according to Holland Township records.

The owner will have invested an additional $2.75 million in the property by the end of 2012, according to Durham. Besides the cost of carrying the property, the money was spent on improvements to the buildings and site and tenant improvements.

Mixed-use projects

“It’s a big job remodeling and improving over 200,000 square feet,” Durham said. A new access road built in 2010 provided closer access to shops on the west side of the open-air mall. The company also has begun rebuilding the building facades throughout the mall. One is finished and another is being completed.

The new owners’ vision is for a mixed-use property, and they’ve attracted a spectrum of tenants. Lakeshore Electric Cars and Golf Carts and Cassidy Rae Studio, a hair salon, rank among the most recent tenants, Durham said. Existing tenants like West Michigan Flooring and Harvest Antiques & Collectibles & Home Decor are relocating or expanding.

Harvest Antiques is preparing to move to a better location, after operating as an antique mall for 16 years in the Holland Town Center.

In the past, they had to compensate for an out-of-the-way location by advertising campaigns, said manager Dave Rosenberger.

“We’ve done fine and we’ve made it through the bad times, but this should be a shot in the arm,” he said. The new location by the Center’s pond, visible from restaurants, is highly desirable.

“For pretty much the first time in eight years, we’re going to have walk-by traffic,” Rosenberger said.

About Holland Town Center

If you would like more information about Holland Town Center, please contact Drew Durham at 616 566-2039or go to www.hollandtowncenter.com

About SugarOak

SugarOak is a full service real estate company offering investment, management, and construction services across multiple property types. Headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, SugarOak has ownership interests and management portfolios across the US and Canada.

Holland Town Center - Time For a Change

HOLLAND TOWNSHIP -- With occupancy of the Holland Town Center at less than 50 percent, the owners of the Holland Township retail property felt it was time for a change.

With cooperation from its neighbor to the west, Nelis' Dutch Village, construction is under way on a new two-lane road that will not only serve two of the center's main tenants -- the Gap and Carter's Children's Wear -- but mark the start of a transformation of the Town Center into a mixed-use property that eventually will include offices, restaurants and possibly uses such as research and development.

As a result, however, the Dutch-themed drawbridge that connected the Town Center to Dutch Village is being taken down. The drawbridge will be replaced by a standard pedestrian bridge, to be built using recycled materials from the drawbridge, that still will connect the two properties, said Joe Nelis, president of Dutch Village.

"We think it'll create a little excitement, to re-energize the center and get some potential tenants," Nelis said.

Holland Town Center, which was built in the late 1980s and originally known as Manufacturers Marketplace, enjoyed initial success as an outlet mall. But as shopping patterns changed and more people began using the Internet to shop, outlet malls faded in popularity. The Town Center soon found itself with more vacant spaces than tenants.

Enter SugarOak Holdings Inc., a Herndon, Va.-based real estate development firm that acquired the 215,000-square-foot Town Center last year from Horizon Group at a cost of more than $2.7 million. The company specializes in redeveloping former outlet malls into mixed-used properties. "Usually, (outlet malls) couldn't sustain themselves, as far as occupancy was concerned," said Andy Walsh, SugarOak vice president of sales and leasing.

The company has had success redeveloping a former outlet mall northeast of Indianapolis into a mixed-used property, and Walsh believes the Town Center's location near U.S. 31 makes it an attractive property for redevelopment. "Locationally, it's fantastic," he said.

SugarOak has renewed leases with the Gap and Carter's, and hopes to retain other businesses in the center, such as Harvest Antiques, a 20,000-square-foot antique mall, and the Lost City, a popular "laser tag" amusement center. But the company is also changing how it offers space to potential clients, by giving them the option to buy space under a condominium-type arrangement.

"It's essentially a move-in ready product," Walsh said. "You can walk in, turn on the lights and operate tomorrow."

Besides retail, Walsh hopes to attract other uses to the center, including offices, light medical uses such as chiropractic centers, and possibly research and development firms.

Meanwhile, Joe Nelis is hopeful a revitalized Town Center will help draw additional business to Dutch Village, an attraction that has been an anchor at the southeast corner of U.S. 31 and James Street for more than a half-century.

"(Shoppers) will be able to look at the heart of the theme park and see what we've done the last three to four years to make it more kid-friendly and family-focused," Nelis said.

Some parts, such as the counterbalance from the old drawbridge, could end up being used at another Dutch-themed attraction: Holland's Windmill Island Gardens. Nelis has approached island officials about the idea.

Construction on the new road and nearly 100 parking spaces that will go along with it are expected to be completed by Thanksgiving, Walsh said.

Redevelopment of Holland Town Center Commences

Phase I of the Mixed-Use Redevelopment of Holland Town Center Commences

In addition, SugarOak will be converting Buildings A & B to mixed-use retail/office/medical business condominiums. SugarOak’s vision for the redevelopment of Holland Town Center is to create a vibrant mixed-use center, where retail, office, medical, restaurants and even R&D/tech users will call home.

In July 2009, SugarOak purchased the Holland Town Center, previously known as the Holland Outlet Mall from Horizon Properties. SugarOak has extensive experience with revitalizing similar centers around the country, and plans to do the same for Holland Town Center by providing retail and office users with an opportunity to lease or purchase ready-to-use space at below market prices.

About SugarOak SugarOak is a full service real estate company offering investment, management, and construction services across multiple property types. Headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, SugarOak has ownership interests and management portfolios across the US and Canada.

For more information on Holland Town Center see: http://www.hollandtowncenter.com/

For Leasing or Condo Sales info call Andy Walsh at: 616-396-1808