In April of this year, HSA Commercial broke ground on the first phase of The Mayfair Collection, a 270,000-square-foot adaptive reuse shopping center development in suburban Milwaukee, which will be anchored by Nordstrom Rack, Saks Off 5th, and Dick’s Sporting Goods. The 141,000 commuters per day on Highway 45 can already see the shopping center taking shape as storefronts have been framed and retail spaces are being demised. For those who have not seen the progress thus far, Tim Blum, Executive Vice President of the Retail Division of HSA Commercial provides a brief update below.

Southwest elevation of the small shop space which will be occupied by fast casual restaurants, apparel tenants, and Ulta Beauty.

This week, the team from Premier Design + Build, the general contractor of the project, worked diligently to complete the exterior framing for most of the southern retail spaces seen above as well as for the retail space in the north building to be occupied by Saks Off 5th (seen below).

“Now that the storefronts are starting to come up and the pedestrian arcade is visible, people can really appreciate the adaptive reuse nature of this project and the vision by our architect to make reference to the industrial history of the property through a contemporary, urban design,” said Tim Blum.

Storefront for Saks Off 5th currently under construction.

The entrance for Dick’s Sporting Goods is being finalized as construction crews add the decorative stacked stone element to the store’s facade. Inside, demising walls have been built and insulated to prepare for delivery to Dick’s and other retail tenants next month.

“Starting mid-November, a number of different retailers for the project will take possession of their spaces to perform their interior build-out, so Premier is working aggressively to ensure the spaces are in the proper condition for turnover,” Blum added.

North side of the Dick’s Sporting Goods entrance.

Though the vast majority of the project is an adaptive reuse of existing warehouse buildings fronting Highway 45, HSA is developing newly-constructed small shop space between the Nordstrom Rack and Saks Off 5th stores that is being leased to junior and childrens apparel tenants including Carter’s. In the past week, the steel frame for that specialty retail space was erected and is currently being detailed to prepare for the construction of the building’s shell.

New construction retail space next to the Nordstrom Rack facade.

In order to prepare for the increased customer traffic that this project will create, a myriad of improvements are currently being made to Burleigh Street including the expansion of vehicular lanes, addition of traffic signals, and the construction of medians. The west parking lot also was compacted, paved, and a binder coat was added earlier this week to accommodate future visitors to the shopping center.

“The center of retail gravity is going to shift dramatically–almost overnight–toward Burleigh Street in the Mayfair Mall trade area, and we have worked in tandem with the Village to ensure that we have a plan to deal with the traffic volume in a way that encourages repeated customer visits,” Tim stated.

Shopping center arcade in front of Ulta’s storefront.

Grand opening for The Mayfair Collection is projected for early May 2014 after a series of soft openings in April, and the design and leasing for subsequent phases is already underway. Please visit www.mayfaircollection.net for further updates and announcements about the project.