OPEN-AIR 'MALL PARKS' ARE ON THE RISE IN SOCAL

EXHAUSTED PARENTS ARE LOVING THE GREEN SPACES.

- BY RACHEL KRAUS

AS THE sun peeked out from behind the clouds at 9:30 a.m. on the day after a rainy Saturday, the strollers at Runway Playa Vista rolled in.

Giggles echoed in a nearby play area where children twisted knobs and spun a wheel in a car-like play structure.

Toddlers whizzed by on scooters as parents chatted about the struggles of parenting during a rare L.A. storm.

Their solution to kids with pent-up energy wasn't to head to any park-it was to come to a mall park. Or rather, the turf fairway and play structures that sit just outside storefronts at this southwest Los Angeles "shopping center." "My older daughter does dance right here, so this is a Sunday routine for us," said Daniel LaBare, who sat with his Whole Foods shopping bags by the play car with his younger daughter, 2-year-old Ellie. "She goes to dance, and we hang out and play." With the rise of ecommerce, it's no secret that retail developers have had to get creative to keep attracting customers. One method that seems to be working? Catering to families by making green turf and other kid-friendly spaces a mall centerpiece.

Some of these areas are just patches of turf with Adirondack chairs -popular with exploration-minded toddlers, or kids with a ball. But there are also shopping centers with more elaborate play structures, such as Rancho Cucamonga's Victoria Gardens "Orchard Play Area" ("near Shake Shack and Silverlake Ramen," according to the website). The lawns often serve as activity centers where malls hold kid concerts, adult exercise classes and Christmas tree lighting events.

"More and more centers are moving away from just transactional spaces, and they're moving towards community destinations," said Paul Chase, president of JLL Lifestyle Property Management, a commercial real estate developer and investment firm that owns shopping centers across the globe.