Leyland Alliance...Work Learn Play LLP

Leyland Alliance, a Warwick, New York-based developer, has established an affiliate organization called Live Work Learn Play LLP, which will focus on establishing shopping, dining, hospitality, and other commercial components in neighborhood and resort projects that need a lively, distinctive center. Leyland has retained the Live Work Learn Play team — led by Bill Green and Max Reim, both former executives with IntraWest Corporation — to direct commercial master planning and “animation consulting” for a town center planned in Storrs, Connecticut, adjacent to the main campus of the University of Connecticut. To find tenants who will give such centers a heart and soul, the new Montreal-based consulting organization uses a leasing concept that it calls “casting,” which it says is somewhat like choosing actors for a theatrical production. A market research technique identifies prospective tenants by matching them to the developer’s pro-forma profile and to the expected mix of users in the development. Among the tenants being sought are unique mom-and-pop owner-operators and a smaller number of regional and national chains. Green, who was senior vice president at IntraWest, directing resort developments, says the aim is to “bring excitement and vitality to traditional neighborhoods,” thus generating greater satisfaction for residents and better financial results for developers. Green sees a huge need for such services, especially in resorts, university town centers, “active adult” communities, and healthcare institutions.