Barrington, Ill.-based GK Development Inc. is undertaking an expansion and renovation of its 340,000-square-foot North Grand Mall in Ames, Iowa [...] the thrust of the project will be to add an open-air lifestyle component, the Streets of North Grand.Ahhh, that's been the cause of my restless retail dissatisfaction -- I've got a open-air lifestyle component-shaped hole in me.
Snarkiness aside, a nice, lively open-air lifestyle component would be a pretty bitchin' thing. I'm dubious that something like that could simply be manufactured and plopped down, though. Main Street in this town is sort of an open-air lifestyle component, as is Welch Avenue, but neither quite seem to have worked up critical mass in either the retail or happening-public-space spheres. Main Street is a, well, street, after all, not a big open-air space where people congregate.
Maybe I'm spoiled, though, because I tend to compare all open-air lifestyle components to Boulder's Pearl Street Mall, which is probably an unreachable standard in a town this size.