New owners hope to quickly inject life into Pavilions

    BRIGHTON – For more than two years, the vast collection of empty storefronts of the Brighton Pavilions have told the story of the once-promising shopping center.
    But last week, those storefronts told a different story thanks to nine large, red letters smack dab in the middle of fresh leasing signs.
    AVAILABLE.
    And for Joe Gardner, co-owner of Cold Stone Creamery, there was renewed hope that sticking with the center, while other businesses have vanished, may still pay off.

Photo by Kevin Denke

Leasing signs dot empty storefronts at the Brighton Pavilions as the new owners try to change the center’s fortunes.

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    Florida-based Cantor Partners purchased the in-line retail portion of the Brighton Pavilions and is putting together an ambitious plan to fill the center with businesses to surround the Pavilions’ two major anchors, the AMC movie theater and the Lone Star steakhouse.
    “I think we’re coming to the end of an era of ownership of a model that did not work, not only for the Pavilions, but also, more importantly, for the city of Brighton,” Gardner said. “Now we’ve got a new company with a proven track record that, I believe, has the leadership and vision in place, to not only understand the challenging economy we’ve got going on right now but also showing a willingness and desire to do whatever it takes to get the center occupied.
    The Pavilions opened in 2005 on 14 acres of previously vacant land near U.S. Highway 85 and Bridge Street. It brought the city its first movie theater in more than two decades. However, the center’s estimated 30,000 square feet of retail space was never fully occupied and as the financial fortunes of the center’s owners, Carlson Parkhill, soured, businesses looked elsewhere.
    As Bill West, Cantor director of asset management and value maximization, sat in a sixth-floor conference room of Brighton City Hall Dec. 2, his focus was less on what was, or more apropos, what wasn’t. He wanted to talk about what still could be.
    West said in light of the poor commercial real estate economy, company founder Jole Cantor returned to his roots, swooping up distressed properties at half the price it took to build them.
    While the plight of the Pavilions might be a unique and particularly frustrating plight to Brighton city leaders and business owners, West has seen a similar story play out across the country.
    “A lot of projects that were built or started prior to the recession basically became the victim of hard times,” West said. “As a result of that, all over the country, these developers were stuck with these properties. The rents were too high and because of the downturn in the economy in general, there were problems. And what happens to a lot of these developers, similar to Brighton Pavilions, they just got stuck almost like everybody else out there that was trying to develop projects.”
    Enter Cantor Partners.
    When the bank-owned property comes up for sale, the company can pick up the property at a fraction of its original building cost. That gave Cantor financial flexibility to offer lower rental rates and fill the property with tenants.
    It’s not completely without risk. In fact, West says the company is in a hurry to fill the Pavilions with tenants and start to recoup some of the cost of purchasing the facility. A purchase price for the Pavilions was not made available.
    West said Cantor made the purchase of the Pavilions without a visit to the property. They gathered the information they needed to make the move via property-seller information, most of it through the Internet.
    “To someone like myself who spent my whole career in real estate and real estate development, there are certain things I believe I can look at and say, ‘OK, I can see the inherent value in this thing.’”
    Even from the headquarters in Tampa, Fla., West said the potential for the Pavilions was obvious. He said it is not only a well-built project but they believe the concept of the Pavilions as a town center is still valuable.
    “It’s got the charm and character of a town center,” he said. “It’s got the make-up for that. Joel and I both believe that this is the perfect platform to be the destination gathering place for the city of Brighton. We absolutely believe that.
    “We really believe that, once we populate this with tenants –  with the right tenants –  this is going to be the place where mothers and fathers are going to want to pack up their kids in the car and go hang out here on a nice day. Go to movies, go to a variety of places to eat and stroll and let the kids play around. There’s really no other place in Brighton like that.”
    But business owners, such as Gardner, will be the first to say that the Pavilions never lacked potential. The key is whether Cantor can translate that potential into profitability.
    West believes, from firsthand experiencing of his first trip to the Pavilions, that complaints of the Pavilions accessibility might be a bit overblown by some leasing agents. But he does admit that improved signs, once potential visitors have left U.S. Highway 85, could go a long way. He adds that if Cantor is successful in putting the right mix of restaurants into the center that people want to visit then people will find their way to the Pavilions.
    “It’s not like a gas station. This is destination oriented,” he said.
    And he believes the survival of Cold Stone and Qdoba (both national chains) will be appealing to other potential restaurants.
    “They’re national, regional tenants,” West said. “They work off of the same model as the type of tenants were trying to attract here. The proof’s in the pudding. They’re here, and they are doing OK. And I would venture to guess that every local that lives here in town knows how to get to Cold Stone Creamery and Qdoba and doesn’t think, ‘Ah, I don’t want to get in my car because it’s really a pain to get there.’ I don’t think that’s the case.”
    West said their search would be for businesses and restaurants that compliment the existing businesses, naturally the theater and the remaining restaurant tenants as well.
    “I primarily see this as more a focus on eateries,” West said. “My goal would be to get the trendy pizza place in there, the trendy Asian-type, like a Noodles & Co. or a Tokyo Joes, we get a trendy burger-type place, there’s a lot of great concepts, Smashburger, Five Guys.”
    West said success in filling the Pavilions would come if they can sell possible restaurant tenants on the synergy of all being in the same place. He said the power of the theater can’t be underestimated in bringing new businesses.
    Just a couple weeks after buying the Pavilions, West said they were already mulling a pair of letters of intent.
    Gardner and his wife, Carolin, were sold on the potential of the Pavilions once before. That’s why they opened the franchise in 2005. They’ve been tempted to look elsewhere. But they are willing to wait a little longer to see if Cantor can fulfill the Pavilions’ promise.
    “From our store from when it first opened to where it is now, you can see the potential for it,” he said. “That’s the encouraging factor. But I know, at the same point, that you’re on a short rope that if something doesn’t change in the next six months or so, you certainly want to look at that movement again and see what’s out there.”

Contact Kevin Denke at kdenke@metrowestnewspapers.com or 303-659-2522, ext. 225.