[spaceflunky]

I too believe this is the answer.

In San Bruno, CA a portion of the mall there is dedicated to small experiences for children (a miniature play town, a bounce room, etc). I've taken my toddler there and it was pretty fun.

Pure commoditized retail isn't going to cut it anymore. I think another component is that the rent is going to have to be very cheap in order to lower the bar to entry and encourage rapid innovations in this space. If I were Simon (or a similar property group), I might dedicate a certain percentage of my mall spaces to "incubate" these new ideas by offer cheap or nearly free rent.

[notakio]

There was a place in North Texas (Frisco or Plano) that had a miniature indoor town, where kids could play as various professions, from hair stylist to firefighter to banker and other things. It struck me as a pretty neat use of what used to be a multi-story department store space, though there wasn't much geared toward my daughter who was two at the time. Still, making use of the fairly-recently built space instead of just abandoning it seemed like a decent ethical choice, and they seemed to be doing OK, despite the ongoing pandemic.

[quantumwannabe]

Sounds like KidZania:

https://dallas.kidzaniausa.com/

https://g.page/KidZaniaUSA

[spaceflunky]

KidZania is next level tho. Absolutely insane

[dkasper]

Tanforan failed so hard it’s getting torn down to become office space. Not exactly a great example.

[jhbadger]

I think the owners might want to rethink that. Malls aren't a great business to be in right now, but I'm not too sure office space is that hot either given the work-from-home transition. Condos and other housing seem to still be a good business to be in though.

[spaceflunky]

Yeah, it's not super well executed by any means and its relegated to a very small section of the mall, but I still believe the idea is good and could be successful if nurtured correctly.