One Developer’s Strategies for Successful Placemaking

In 2005, when Boston developer The Fallon Company bought the site that would, 15 years later, become Fan Pier, the $115 million waterfront property was nothing more than empty parking lots surrounded by run-down warehouses. Other developers had been drawing up plans for the site since the 1980s, though nothing had ever come to fruition. But The Fallon Company was optimistic.

Persevering through construction during the Great Recession, the company turned the 21 acres on the city’s waterfront into a 3 million-square-foot commercial, residential and public space development. The project helped catalyze the redevelopment of the larger Boston Seaport neighborhood.

With Fan Pier and several other mixed-use projects completed across the Northeast, The Fallon Company has, needless to say, earned a reputation for excelling in placemaking developments.

“We (my father and I) always look at Disney, which is the best at placemaking development,” said Michael Fallon, CEO of the family-founded company, which he took over from his father, Joe Fallon, in his 30s. “While we aren’t trying to entertain people as much as they are,” he joked, “we are trying to give people a place that serves a function, but if you can also entertain them and give them an experience [while there], then all the better.”

LoopNet spoke with Fallon about the science behind successful placemaking — from how to drive traffic to the project to the enticing elements that make it distinctive and turn it into a destination.

Placemaking at its core is the act of developing and shaping a public space with a people-centered approach, often in fringe areas that require ground-up construction to create hubs, zones or even full-blown neighborhoods from scratch.

“If you're doing an infill development, you don’t change the identity of an area with one building. You just adopt the character of the buildings around it,” said Fallon. “With placemaking, you have to be the one to create that identity for the area.”

One of the first steps in accomplishing that, he said, is to start driving traffic to the site and turn it into a destination.

Generate buzz and drive traffic. The location of a new development needs to be accessible, meaning transportation infrastructure, like highways or public rail systems, is key. Even if the infrastructure to a location isn’t fully built out yet, “you want to make sure you have a political environment that's going to work with you, whether it’s the city, state or [more local municipality], to create a new highway exit or run a light rail to your project to activate the site. These are the types of projects you’re usually going to have to drive activity out to,” Fallon said.

Creating a buzz around a new project is important, and this can (and arguably should) begin before construction even starts. Pop-up food and retail or weekend events that draw a crowd, such as sailing races on the Boston waterfront or setting up pickleball courts and other amateur sporting events, are some of the strategies The Fallon Company has experimented with to generate excitement about a location ahead of project completion.

“You have to give people a reason to want to be there. You could be in and out in a day or two, but you’re still getting people down there and it will make the place feel active and lively. That gets it on people's radars,” Fallon said.

Determine the right mix of uses, but be flexible. One building won’t create a sense of place, said Fallon. “You need to have a critical mass of buildings.”

It can be hard to nail down the right mix of uses that will make the most of the project’s real estate. Fallon’s approach is to determine the general site layout first, blocking out areas for buildings, public spaces, infrastructure and more.

“We figure out the layout and start with where the major infrastructure has to go, and then kind of back our way out from that. We put blocks in certain areas and say, ‘we’ll figure out the uses in a bit,” and usually take a few passes at it by bringing in the right planning and creative partners to give us options,” he said.

The one non-negotiable component of a mixed-use project is retail, which is a driving force in activity. You can utilize ground-floor space in office or residential buildings, or on commercial rooftops, to create “exceptional bar and restaurant experiences,” Fallon said.

“We focus a lot on bringing in the right restaurateurs and will give significant [leasing] discounts to get the right retail. The retail serves the building, and in my mind, makes the building more valuable," he added.

Breaking out the development into phases can generate a more dynamic mix of uses and be more financially feasible. Currently, Fallon is pausing office construction at some of its projects. “With one particular project we are working on now, we are looking for what [we can build] that’s financeable today to start creating that critical mass. So, we are doing heavy hotel, residential and retail components first.”

The right mix of uses is market-specific, but office phases will likely come later, as offices drive significant foot traffic to retail during the day. “And then residential and hotels have different use patterns. However, certain markets, like Nashville for example where we are doing a lot of work now, can be very high in tourism. So, there are people all over during the day that definitely will go to the retail, even if they're not going to an office or their apartment," Fallon said.

Above all, you need to be nimble, flexible and willing to change course throughout the duration of these long-term projects.

“You have to plan for every site to be anything. I think that's been the biggest thing that we have done over the history of our company — you can't be so anchored to your plan or what you've said you’re going to do that you're not willing to reload and try again,” Fallon said.

Find your wow factor. Social media has become an essential element of organic real estate marketing, and a surefire way to get people to come to your development is to have “something Instagram-able, something that's interactive, interesting and makes you want to go there," Fallon said.

He cited one nationally successful example of an installation — The Vessel at New York’s Hudson Yards (developed by Related Companies). You can likely picture the bronze beehive shape of the spiral staircase from news photos and social media posts even if you haven’t been there yourself. The unique architecture of the interactive art piece is one of the main draws to the location, thereby generating foot traffic for the retail and restaurants at the development.

Hudson Yards also makes use of another popular type of tourist attraction with The Edge, a glass-floor observation deck 100 stories above the Manhattan skyline and Hudson River.

“You see a lot of office buildings taking their top floors and making a really interesting observation deck or amenity area, and we are cognizant of that trend.” The Fallon Company has added amenity decks to many of their office buildings, and at its Raleigh Crossing project in Raleigh, North Carolina, are “already redoing and adding more to the amenity floor after two years to keep it top of the market. A lot of these things can be trial and error. You want to see who's coming to the project and who's using what,” Fallon said.

But while a wow factor will draw in crowds, Fallon also emphasized that there are a lot of simple additions that can make a big impact and ensure people want to stay in the space.

“While I like to do stuff where we're the first to do it, there are some staple items that a lot of people will value engineer out, but that work well. Outdoor fire pits for example. They are really easy to do, and people love them,” he said. “Incorporating water features into your project also goes a long way.”

Commit for the long haul. A large placemaking development can be intimidating. They often span many years, sometimes taking decades to come to full completion, and developers need to find patience and the resolve to wait for the projects, which will require a much larger upfront investment than smaller-scale options, to pay off.

“It probably isn’t going to pencil from the beginning,” said Fallon. “You have to plan and spend a lot of money on marketing early. You have to be ready to take the leap and charge ahead.”