A neighborhood shopping center (Commonwealth English: neighbourhood shopping centre) is an industry term in the United States for a shopping center with 30000square feet125000square feet of gross leasable area, typically anchored by a supermarket and/or large drugstore.[1]
Even larger centers of 250000square feet600000square feet are considered power centers, typically anchored by category-killer big box stores (e.g. Best Buy) incl. discount department stores (e.g. Target) and wholesale clubs (e.g. Costco).
In Europe, any shopping center with mostly "retail warehouse units" (UK terminology; in the US these are called "big box stores" or superstores), 5000 sqm or larger, 53,819 sq. ft., is a retail park, according to the leading real estate company Cushman & Wakefield.[2] [3] Therefore, some neighborhood shopping centers in the United States might be considered "retail parks" in Europe, depending on the tenant mix.
Before the 1930s, there were only a few examples of this type of shopping center, typically built as part of new, planned, upscale residential developments. During the 1930s the neighborhood center not only emerged as an important element of the retail landscape in the United States, but also became one of the first common building forms to be adapted for the society's widespread adoption of the automobile. Already by 1940, the neighborhood shopping center was seen as a good format for serving the shopping needs of people in suburban areas in general. Washington, D. C., was the area where different experimental forms were built.[4]
The Bank Block in Grandview Heights, Ohio (1928) was an early neighborhood center of 30 shops built along Grandview Avenue, with parking in the back for 400 cars. Uniquely for the time, it had multiple national grocery store tenants Kroger, Piggly Wiggly, and the A&P Tea Company.[5] The 1930 Park & Shop (Cleveland Park, Washington, D.C.) was another early neighborhood center. It was anchored by Piggly Wiggly and built in an L shape with dedicated parking space for shoppers in the front, a novelty at the time. The center still exists, anchored by a Target store.[6]