The Outdoor District Is Eating the Mall. Mosaic, Avalon, and Why the Suburbs Are Building Downtowns From Scratch.

There is a moment every American suburb eventually reaches. The mall is half-empty. The strip centers look like every other strip center in every other suburb in the country. And the residents start asking a question that sounds simple but turns out to be expensive: why doesn't this place feel like a place? The outdoor mixed-use district is the answer the industry landed on — and the Mosaic District in Merrifield, Virginia and Avalon in Alpharetta, Georgia are two of the best examples of what it looks like when you get it right. This is the full brand and marketing analysis of the model, the projects, and what every business operating inside one should be doing differently.