A power center (also known as a retail park or stretch mall) is an unenclosed shopping center with 250,000 square feet (23,000 m2) to 750,000 square feet (70,000 m2) of gross leasable area[1] that usually contains three or more big box retailers and various smaller retailers (usually located in strip malls) with a common parking area shared among the retailers. It is likely to have more money spent on features and architecture than a traditional big box shopping center.[2]
Power centers function similar to a traditional shopping mall, but more closely resemble open-air malls and Lifestyle centers, rather than the modern enclosed shopping malls of today.
In 1986, 280 Metro Center, an open-air, strip shopping complex composed of discount and warehouse retailers, opened in Colma, California; it is credited with being the first ever power center.[3]
In recent years, it has become quite common for an older shopping mall to expand – or be renovated – as a power center, adding big-box stores, category killers and strip shopping center-type buildings to the parking and open areas, rather than to add anchors and new retail space to the existing mall facility. Puente Hills Mall and Del Amo Fashion Center in Southern California are good examples of this. Other examples are Seven Corners Center in suburban Washington, D.C.[4] and Deerfoot Mall in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Power centers are almost always located in suburban areas, but occasionally redevelopment has brought power centers to densely populated urban areas.
Some new power center developments have attempted to re-create the atmosphere of an old-town Main Street, with varying levels of success.