The Associated Press took a long, hard look at private security guards. It looks at the broad spectrum of building types, but does make some mention of shopping centers in the text. The piece draws similar conclusions to an article we ran in April looking at the low pay and lack of training many security guards receive.

The middle ground pay for security officers in 2006 was $23,620, according to a new Labor Department survey. The low pay reflects cutthroat competition among security firms, who submit the lowest possible bids to win contracts. Lowball contracts also mean lower profit margins and less money for training and background checks for guards.

The problems, though, are spread well beyond just the mall industry.

Some states require FBI fingerprint checks for every guard job applicant. Others let the industry police itself. These states don’t regulate the industry: Alabama, Colorado, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Kentucky, Wyoming and Idaho. The city of Boise and many Idaho communities do regulate guards. Some states require background checks for company owners but not guards.

In states that keep such records, the AP found more than 96,000 of 1.3 million applicants, about 7.3 percent, were turned down _ mostly, state officials said, for having criminal histories.

The most important number, however, can’t be found: individuals convicted of serious crimes who were hired in states without background checks or in states where they slipped through the system.

City officials in Tempe have created a program to jointly market ground floor retail space at disparate condo projects going up around the city. Altogether, the retail space amounts to 2 million square feet–the size of a large regional mall. Officials are calling the program “Explore the Ground Floor.”

The showcase is designed not only to tell retailers about the opportunities coming but also to make them aware of how the area’s demographics will change with the arrival of downtown visitors staying in one of several planned boutique hotels and residents living in the upscale condos under construction.

Some of the retailers that are expected include a boutique grocery store, bakery and winemaker.

“We love the corporate, but we also value the really funky retailer, the mom-and-pops if you will,” said Sheri Wakefield-Saenz, the city’s economic development director

The Arizona Republic has

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Having already found much success with its original Build-A-Bear concept as well as spin-off friends 2B made (where you design dolls), the hot toy retailer has hatched a third concept that involves designing your own remote-controlled cars called Ridemakerz.

In 2005, Larry Andreini, 44, an entrepreneur from Fairfax, Va., with a background in financial services and customer loyalty programs, came calling with a concept called Ridemakerz, a make-and-outfit your own toy car business. “He fit in with our culture,” Ms. Clark said in an interview. “He understood what it takes to bring a brand to reality.”

She decided to collaborate with Mr. Andreini in the form of a $3 million investment and an estimated $15 million in back-office support from Build-A-Bear Workshop.

The first Ridemakerz store is scheduled to open Friday at an entertainment and retail complex in Myrtle Beach, S.C., followed in July by an outpost at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.

“Through the partnership we’re able to see every store performance of every Build-A-Bear,” Mr. Andreini said. “We have access to data that tells us the best place to open our shops.”

According to the New York Post, Liz Claiborne may be cutting some of its stores soon.

The sizable job cuts, expected within the next few weeks, are said to be across all levels of the company and could total as much as 10 percent of the work force, sources said. Liz Claiborne employed 17,000 full-time staffers worldwide as of December, according to its most recent annual report.

A Liz Claiborne spokeswoman declined to comment on the potential layoffs, but the company alluded to “additional streamlining” when it reported first-quarter earnings earlier this month.

Faced with disappointing sales, particularly in its U.S. wholesale division, newly appointed Chief Executive William McComb is expected to make the results of his strategic review known July 11.

Saks Fifth Avenue says its new shoe department is so big and fancy it’s getting its own ZIP code.

The quintessential Manhattan store is revamping its shoe department, and when it moves from the fourth floor to the eighth floor in August customers will be able to send mail to 10022-SHOE.

“We believe it’s such a big move for us it deserves its own ZIP code,” Saks spokeswoman Lesley Langsam Kennedy said Thursday. “We wanted to make it a destination.”

The U.S. Postal Service said it worked with the retailer on the new ZIP code, which is just promotional. Only the last four characters, which aren’t necessary when you’re mailing something, are specialized, and they won’t be read by sorting machines. The rest of the midtown neighborhood, which includes St. Patrick’s Cathedral, shares 10022.

With all the talk of curfews lately, a local NBC affiliate monitored mall rats and got some interesting findings.

We witnessed the officers ourselves. Our undercover shoppers were asked to leave mall property for videotaping without permission.

Managers at Coastland Center Mall in Naples say they do have security, but wouldn’t go in-depth about their policies. Their guards were the least visible to our cameras.

“If they stay here too long and they have nothing to do, it gets to the point they think of games,” said Elizabeth Savolidis.

We caught teens running around the outside of the mall cutting off families, smoking and swearing.

Inside, a group of nearly 20 teens with skateboards knocked over chairs and created chaos in the food court.

Pulling police records, NBC2 uncovered in 2006, there were 75 incidents involving juveniles at Coastland Center Mall.

Sixty three teens, between the ages of 13 to 18, were arrested for everything from shoplifting, to car theft to drugs to battery.

The 2007 ICSC Spring Convention will go down as the year sustainable design went mainstream. Dozens of developers were talking of their first significant steps towards adopting green techniques in upcoming projects. And the sense of excitement about the move towards creating more environmentally-friendly projects was palpable.

ICSC was in the action itself, unveiling a Green Pavilion between the North and Central Halls that featured presentations and examples of green technologies and building techniques.

“The Green Pavilion is representative of the new focus on sustainability,” says Terry Brown, CEO of Edens & Avant. “It’s coming along very quickly. The hope is that we all have to find a way to make the economics work.” Brown acknowledged that Edens & Avant is exploring how it can incorporate these strategies in its ongoing development and redevelopment efforts.

And there are tons of examples of projects to pick from. For example, regional mall REIT Macerich Co. is working on a sustainable redevelopment of an existing property called Santa Monica Place from an indoor into an outdoor center, will include such features as energy-efficient lighting, storm water systems, and water efficient landscaping. The approximately 600,000-square-foot development will be the first LEED-certified project for Macerich.

They are far from alone. “All of the big REITs we work with — Macerich, General Growth Properties, CBL & Associates, — are very interested in sustainable design and they all want to do it,” says Tipton Housewright, principal with architecture firm Omniplan.

Colm Macken, president & CEO of Shea Properties, adds that across the country cities are angling to get developers to build environmentally-friendly mixed-use projects as a way to ease traffic. “I think the trend is going towards mixed use and green,” Macken says.

For example, the Town of Markham in Canada and the Remington Group announced what they are calling the largest environmentally-friendly mixed-use development in North America. The $3 billion project broke ground today.

The movement is also moving overseas. Architecture firm Callison unveiled what it says will be the first environmentally-friendly project in China. The 1.5-million-square-foot Central Walk project will be located in the city of Shenzen. The project will include green space, optimized energy performance and a green roof among other features.

One of the biggest challenges developers talked about was that because the industry is only at the beginning of incorporate green design, there are no established best practices. Many are looking to the LEED certification program for guidance. But there will be a lot of experimentation beyond that as owners figure out what works and what doesn’t.

– Staff Reports

As the real estate industry’s focus shifts away from traditional single-use properties to mixed-use projects, department stores are having a hard time adjusting to their loss of power, according to Sheldon Halpern, an attorney with Pircher, Nichols & Meeks. Though these retailers see a future for themselves in mixed-use projects they want to exert the same kind of control over parking and neighbors as they used to in regional malls, but developers are no longer willing to accommodate them because mixed-use projects often involve several different property owners. “They are used to having their fairly definitive criteria and controlling the entire center, but there needs to be a more creative approach to dealing with them,” he says. … As in recent years, companies were eager to highlight new developments and redevelopment projects. “For us, the amount of new development and redevelopment projects is about equal — much of the redevelopment we see is about the construction of an outdoor environment on the site of an indoor center and redesign of the vacant spaces left by consolidated department stores,” said Tipton Housewright, principal with architecture firm Omniplan. … “The enclosed mall has become a dinosaur. Mixed-use is where our focus lies,” says Erwin L. Greenberg, Chairman of the Board Greenberg Gibbons Commercial Corporation. Greenberg also dismissed the notion that developers may be putting too many mixed-use projects in the hopper. “I’m not worried too much,” he says. … Lenders continue to be creative in how they are financing projects. For example KeyBank Real Estate Capital has started a program to offer 80 percent unrecourse financing for projects in transition, according to Daniel Walsh Jr., managing director of the firm’s private equity group. “It’s something developers are demanding and it makes sense for assets that are being renovated and can become really great projects.” … Phillips Edison & Co., owners and managers of 18 million square feet of neighborhood and community centers, are undertaking something a little outside that scope. The firm is building the Blue Sky Corporate Ranch near Park City Utah on 3,000 acres. The facility will include a 26,000-square-foot conference center with 12,000 square feet of meeting space, an amphitheater, a 6,400-square-foot wellness center and other amenities. The firm will use the facility itself, but will also allow other companies to rent the facility. … Gordon Group Holdings announced a joint venture partnership with Morgan Stanley Real Estate Equity Fund to build Lac Mirabel, a $400 million complex including enclosed retail and entertainment facilities. Groundbreaking at the 320-acre mixed use project 30 miles north of Montreal will be in June.

– Staff Reports

Legacy Capital Partners, a small private equity firm based in Lyndhurst, Ohio, is happy to stand out from the financial crowd. While many real estate funds routinely raise $500 million or more of equity to acquire properties, Legacy Capital Partners’ first fund launched in November 2004 paled by comparison, raising $44 million from high-net-worth individuals. Based on its financial success, a second fund of some $50 million has been introduced.

“We want to be small. We have no objective to be a $500 million to $1 billion fund,” David Pierre, president of Legacy Capital Partners, told NREI . The bigger the fund, the greater the threat for investors to enter into deals with hair on them.

To guard against that pitfall, Pierre says that “we look for geographic diversification, property type diversification, and developer diversification.”

Rather than acquire existing assets at today’s exceptionally high prices, Legacy Capital Partners’ provides developers with the capital needed to build projects and create value. “We’re longer-term investors, seven to 10-year holders,” says Pierre. Once projects within the fund are completed and refinanced, Pierre estimates the fund generates cash-on-returns of 18 percent.

Some 20 percent of the capital placed in Legacy Capital Partners’ first fund was devoted almost exclusively to retail lifestyle centers. The remaining 80 percent was earmarked for developing student housing at colleges and universities and building age-restricted seniors housing.

– Matt Valley

The fastest 100 hours of the year are now over.

From the first burst of traffic at the Trade Expo to the die-hards still making the rounds even as I type this, just over four days have passed. It feels like four months. So much is loaded into each day (except sleep) during this annual cavalcade of wheeling and dealing. The added space made a huge difference. No longer did it feel like you were constantly on top of other people. Yet even the companies that beefed up their booths had every chair and table occupied with site plans, leasing sheets and other documents spilling all over the place.

Technically, the ICSC Spring Convention is still going with the Leasing Mall open for a few more hours. But as is it is for Wednesday every year, the Leasing Mall is already little more than a ghost town. So now is as good a time as any to start making sense of the madness. Overall, my sense is that spirits remain high and retail real estate pros as optimistic as ever. Sure, there is recognition that things very likely will slow a bit soon, but there are many reasons to believe the slowdown could be minor. Most critically, the retailers themselves were incredibly aggressive this year. They took advantage of the larger show area to create bigger booths. And most were not just looking for this year’s deals but also figuring out expansion plans for 2008, 2009 and further.

I’m still trying to process everything I saw and learned over this past four+ days. For now, I offer a simple countdown of what my four days was like.

• Sit-down Meetings: 30
• Business Cards Collected: 80
• Hours of Sleep: Roughly 12
• Sit-down Meals Consumed: 1
• Cocktail Parties Attended: 15
• Drinks Consumed: ??

As always, though, it was a blast. The entire Retail Traffic and National Real Estate Investor teams got a chance to meet with dozens of firms, made new contacts and learned a ton about where retail real estate pros think the industry is going.

And just think, the next Spring Convention is just 360 days away.