Hamilton Marketplace: The Future of Shopping

Mercer Business, May 01, 2006 by Roberts, Russell

Hamilton Marketplace is a case in point. The consumer parks in front of the store they want, goes in, and exits after their purchase. They may visit other stores, but it's all driven with a single-minded purpose: What do I need, and where can I get it?

Another reason for the decline of indoor malls has been the typical consumer's reluctance to mix with so-called "mall rats" -teenagers who make the mall their second home.

Hamilton Marketplace has a mixture of the types of stores that shoppers typically seek in a power center. There is a discounter, home store, department store, mass merchandise bookstore, and plenty of restaurants that offer everything from standard sit-down fare to fast food. Many of those restaurants offer outside dining another feature of both lifestyle and power centers. The clock tower, landscaped grounds with bridges and pathways are other signs of the power center.

Lifestyle centers tend to go even heavier on the "urban mix" of paths, picnic tables, and tree-lined corridors... even to the point of containing ponds or streams. Lifestyle centers also typically have bistros or restaurants with sidewalk seating out front.

Hamilton Township Mayor Glen Gilmore noted the immediate success the stores and restaurants in the center have achieved. "What's been most interesting is how the performance of restaurants and retailers within the complex has exceeded even their rosiest predictions made before construction started."

"The amazing strength of this retail magnet is still not fully realized. Some of the original pads are still being built out and plans are well underway for the addition of Old Navy and Bombay stores who were not in the original plans for the center," the mayor added.

If "location, location, location" is everything in real estate, than Hamilton Marketplace has location in spades. The shopping center is easily accessible by three major roads - I-195, the New Jersey Turnpike, and Route 130 - and also easily reached by other major arteries in the area, like Route 1 and Route 33.

"We made sure that the Hamilton Marketplace was well designed and allowed a smooth flow of traffic with interior traffic signals to help shoppers get in and out conveniently while, keeping traffic off of Route 130," Gilmore said.

Marketplace's combination of easy access by major roads and location in the heart of an affluent region - its home base of Hamilton Township has a median income of $49,500, and it is surrounding by other affluent areas, such as Washington Township - are two other key factors that developers look for when situating power centers.

Marketplace has sparked development all along the Route 130 corridor. Kraus said that Marketplace was "five years premature" in its inception, but it is now driving the kind of growth and development in the area that is typical of most power centers. Joseph R. Ridolfi, president of the commercial real estate firm Joseph R. Ridolfi & Associates, L.L.C., noted that a research facility is set to be built next to the Home Depot across the street from Marketplace, an office complex is going in next to the post office across the street, and a hotel is planned, again across the street from the shopping center.