The trend among major professional sports teams looking to develop areas around their stadiums with shops, restaurants, entertainment venues, apartments and recreational uses is fueling mixed-use development across the country, Sean McNamara, JLL's managing director of mixed-use property management, told CoStar News at ICSC's retail real estate conference this week in Las Vegas.
McNamara said he is seeing more interest from teams in several major professional leagues that want to be in “sports-anchored or sports-adjacent, mixed use” projects. McNamara helps run The Mixx, a new division within JLL formed to manage complex, multi-asset real estate environments such as OC Vibe, the $4 billion mixed-use development rising around the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, the home rink for the Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League.
Mixed-use developments being a part of or next to sports stadium developments is "one of those new concepts where ... over the next 10 years, you're going to see a lot more of that," McNamara said.
Teams and developers of sports-related projects likely will work to outdo each other to create projects with the best mix of uses, McNamara said. He alluded to a report that he and JLL research executive Jacob Rowden co-authored centering on what McNamara referred to as "the stadiums arms race."
In that report, issued in October and titled "The Stadium District Boom," JLL predicted a wave of mixed-use development centered around stadiums is coming.
"By 2040, we predict that at least half of MLB organizations will announce plans to develop a new stadium or perform a major redevelopment of their existing venue," the JLL report said. "This trend will also bleed over into other sports leagues and non-sports entertainment venues as owners seek to emulate the success of The Battery and other sports-anchored Lifestyle districts."
JLL played a major role in the development of The Battery just north of Atlanta. The development is anchored by Truist Park, home of MLB's Atlanta Braves, and is often cited as a mixed-use project that attracts people to the stadium area 365 days a year.
In Washington, D.C., the NFL's Commanders are planning a stadium-anchored mixed-use development along the Anacostia River projected to open in 2030. McNamara said JLL is hopeful "to get a call on that one and be able to help them with that as well."
Watch the video to see what McNamara says about the challenges and opportunities facing mixed-use projects and developers.