Nothing Novel About Suburban Square Renewal, Focus on Outdoors

Third in a series about changes at Suburban Square in Ardmore.

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Thin, quick, and clad in expensive, cool-gray and black materials: at , one could be describing a new product at the or a regular customer at . As long as the remains nimble and open to change while maintaining its classic style, it stands to reason that profits—and occupancy—will remain hale and robust.

That’s the thinking, anyway, behind more than $1.5 in improvements designed by architects Brown Craig Turner, now taking shape, which will bring the feeling of a whole new wardrobe to the venerable old shopping center. They include:

• New road and walkway surfaces in piazza-like styles, to replace blacktop and broken concrete
• New curbs, planters and crosswalks
• A new high-end restaurant within the courtyard
• New “concept” retailers
• Valet parking at both ends of the L-shaped courtyard and pedestrian mall
• New lighting and underground drainage systems
• An outdoor fireplace and terraced seating
• New landscaping, including replacement of flower beds
• Extra outdoor seating areas in the courtyard and along Coulter Avenue

“The fountain will stay—I want to make that perfectly clear,” laughed Mark Bachus, Suburban Square’s general manager, giving a nod to customer concerns about its fate. “What we’re actually going to do is create walkways so that people can experience the fountain a little bit closer.”

The entire courtyard and pedestrian mall will be replaced with stained concrete, brick and pavers (while stores and the walkway itself remain open to the public).The first phase is the perimeter, underway now, with the interior to be complete by early November—a date certain has been complicated by Hurricane Irene and the other heavy rains over the past few weeks.

Asked if the stores have taken a sales hit during the construction, Bachus said he anticipated it to be minimal, but perhaps more than planned. The perimeter work was to be completed in August, but record rainfall for the month pushed it back. (While we spoke, one retail manager rang Bachus’s cell phone, concerned with pavement work being done Tuesday morning, possibly hampering customers’ access.)

‘It’s a unique place, and in the middle of a very special neighborhood.’—Mark Bachus, GM 

“Retailers are always nervous when you do something like this, but they also realize what kind of impact it’s going to have once it’s done,” Bachus said.

Speaking of rain, there are big improvements in infrastructure, too (worked out in cooperation with planning officials), such as a retention tank beneath the courtyard and new drainage to keep the property from flooding, but also to alleviate water retention and run-off onto Montgomery Avenue.

Taken as a whole, it makes the $1.5 million figure look pretty conservative, which Bachus acknowledges.

An Evolving Outdoor Experience

The courtyard was enclosed and made into a pedestrian walkway in 1980; for the 50 years before that it was a normal street open to traffic. At one point in the 1930s era, there was even a Sunoco gas station on the corner of St. Georges Road and Montgomery Avenue, Bachus said.

It’s ironic that the enclosure was likely a response to the malling of America: in 1980, indoor malls were at their height, so creating the current space at Suburban Square was an attempt to approximate that kind of experience.

Thank the stars it was not sealed off and given a roof and heating. As it is, the open feel of the shopping center’s interior, between St. James Place and St. Georges Place, is just what the public wants these days: “walkability” and an urban feel, in a safe environment.

To that end, recent improvements in lighting and aesthetics on the Anderson Avenue railroad underpass, connecting the shopping center with downtown Ardmore, is helping the effort even more. Already, occasional First Friday Main Line events (such as the ) and the annual celebration incorporate Suburban Square’s west parking lot into the larger party along Lancaster Avenue.

Bachus is a board member of the , and its executive director, Christine Vilardo, recently told me that he clearly sees the value in continuing the tradition of the shopping center as a sort of auxiliary Main Street for Ardmore.

Just Looking

In the Spring of 2010, management at Suburban Square undertook a consumer research study in which 450 customers were interviewed. Of the profile that emerged, “the most interesting thing we found out was that 50 percent of the people that come to Suburban Square have no intention of purchasing anything.”

Of course, the “conversion rate” of those 50 percent is another figure, but it is generally a highly desirable thing to have so many people coming just for the atmosphere—the walk-in traffic helps smaller shops, for starters. And with the improvements to the courtyard, the hope is that the numbers of visitors coming simply to meet friends for coffee, sitting on a park bench to chat, or browse the latest gadgets at the Apple Store, will go even higher.

“That’s something that you don’t typically see when you do that kind of market research for a shopping center,” said Bachus, whose career has been spent at them. At the King of Prussia malls, for instance, where he worked before coming to Suburban Square two years ago, the number of people coming for the sake of being there is “probably less than 20 percent,” he said.

“Here at Suburban Square, it’s just different,” he enthused. “You can see it everyday, with people bringing their children, and looking at the fountain, and playing and meeting friends. It’s a unique place, and in the middle of a very special neighborhood, and that’s why we have to pay very close attention to what we change here.”

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Which brings us to St. James Place, a private street owned by the Square, where plans are to close off the street from time to time, using removable bollards, for concerts and others kinds of public events—traditional ones like Santa’s arrival and new ones, such as live music or theater. In the past, “we’ve never been able to block the street off safely,” Bachus said.

“This will allow us to use this space ... you can imagine the Lower Merion Symphony playing here.”

Coming Friday: The next wave of “concept” shops at Suburban Square.