At WS Development, there’s an appetite for reviving overlooked retail properties that have good bones and gilded histories, but suffered over years of vacancy and neglect.

“It’s a hard business,” said Samantha David, president of the Chestnut Hill, Mass.-based WS Development, among the nation’s largest private development firms. “People sometimes ask me, ‘There’s that property for sale. Why is nobody buying it?’ If you’ve ever tried to take a vacant shopping center and bring it back to life, it’s basically a very complicated puzzle.”

Of the 100-plus properties in the portfolio, she’s eager to discuss three in particular: Hyde Park Village in Tampa purchased in 2013 for $45 million, The Royal Poinciana Plaza in Palm Beach where the ground lease was purchased in August 2014 for $22.5 million, and Plaza del Lago in Wilmette, Ill., acquired in 2022 for $58.7 million. All three are decades-old, open-air shopping destinations that have undergone renewal projects and remerchandising. With each, “We’ve created a new kind of ‘village center’ bringing together some of the best brands in the world with these extraordinary local businesses, like an old-time town center where people would go every day because they needed to get fabric to sew a dress, or they needed gardening tools. We try to merchandise that way, so you’re getting everything you need at our places.

“These are not large properties, which is why we’re able to keep them special,” said David. “We don’t have space that we have to fill. We have space that we get to fill with brands that we think will resonate. For us, certainly there will be expensive things as part of our properties, but there will also be the best T-shirt, the best Pilates studio, or the best ice cream cone, and it has nothing to do with how much they cost. It has to do with making sure it’s the best in its category.”

The properties are just a slice of WS Development, which was established in 1990 and has evolved into one of the largest privately owned development firms in the country. The company manages and leases 25 million square feet of space, ranging from large urban mixed-use destinations to lifestyle, community and open-air centers, either built from the ground up or purchased. The projects range in size, the largest being the Boston Seaport where 7.6 million square feet of residential, hotel, office, retail, entertainment, civic, cultural space and open public space across 33 acres is being created. And the smallest is Plaza del Lago. An additional 10 million square feet of development is planned.

The 270,000-square-foot Hyde Park Village, spanning six blocks, is nestled in Tampa’s historic Hyde Park neighborhood established in 1886, with some of its earliest commercial buildings dating back to 1905 when they were constructed.

“You can still see the beauty of all that historic architecture, even as we’ve continued to restore and refine it,” said David, pointing to the area’s upscale demographics, tree-lined streets and proximity to water. “You couldn’t ask for a better piece of real estate, but it had effectively been abandoned. It was half empty. Many of the stores were planning to close. A few brands we’ve kept,” such as the Downtown Dogs pet boutique. They’ll be near to Brunello Cucinelli, Hermès and Cartier, which are opening stores there next year, as well as Frame, Hill House Home, Rifle Paper Co. and Shack Yoga + Sculpt, which will open this year. Recently, Ralph Lauren, Paige, and LoveShackFancy cut the ribbon on stores at Hyde Park Village, which presents a mix of luxury and contemporary fashion brands, and local shops for everyday needs. The WS team also brought in Buddy Brew Coffee and Hyppos ice pops. “The higher we go in terms of elevation of businesses, the more we bring in smaller businesses as well,” David said.

The 190,000-square-foot Royal Poinciana Plaza, designed in 1957 by renowned architect John Volk in the heart of Palm Beach Island, features lush gardens, palm trees, fountains and two central courtyards. Upcoming openings this fall include Chloé, Mira Mikati, and the return of Rosie Assoulin and Zimmermann in reimagined and expanded spaces. Bottega Veneta and Dr. Barbara Sturm recently opened, as did Tutto Mare, a family-owned restaurant from Sag Harbor, N.Y. “It’s Palm Beach Island’s first and only public waterfront restaurant, which is quite crazy there aren’t more,” said David. “Almost all the waterfront is lined with hotels or homes.”

The Royal Poinciana Playhouse, abandoned for 20 years, was restored and reopened earlier this year and is now Glazer Hall, a theater and civic space.

Plaza del Lago, built in 1927 on Chicago’s North Shore, is considered the second oldest shopping center in the U.S. “When you drive into this property, you see this beautiful Spanish-style architecture, these old buildings,” said David. “We basically undertook a full restoration project to bring all the buildings up to current code and to make them acceptable for current-day retail. They had these beautiful facades and architecture, but the infrastructure wasn’t there to support it.”

Brunello Cucinelli and TWP are scheduled to open in early 2027. Diptyque, Dôen, Zimmermann, and Nerine floral studio, all recently opened. Other openings this year were Marfa Stance, Thom Browne, Peter Millar, Oscar de la Renta, The Henry, Pilatesville, and Lola + The Boys. Space 519, Jenni Payne, Rag & Bone, James Perse, LoveShackFancy, Hill House, and Veronica Beard were part of the first wave of retail openings in 2025, relaunching the center. “The community has embraced it and has welcomed these stores,” said David. “The business has been phenomenal right out of the gate. It speaks to this model that we believe so deeply in.”

WS Development is close to announcing another property acquisition. “We’re opportunistic,” David said. “We don’t buy things to buy them. We buy them when we see opportunities that we believe are extraordinary. We often buy things off market. The Royal Poinciana wasn’t marketed. They weren’t trying to sell it. We often approach people on real estate we love.

“We just bought Pittsburgh’s Station Square, which has an old, beautiful set of buildings with a huge amount of potential… So those are the kinds of assets we love. We’re slow and steady in redeveloping them. It takes many years to do that.”

“But in each of those markets, the thesis is similar — providing the customer what they need on a daily basis. I think a lot of developers get excited if they can think a customer will be at their place once a month. We really want people once a day. That means you’re creating something that’s actually needed, that it becomes their place.”

Asked how she determines who to lease space to, she said: “It’s truly old-fashioned boots on the ground — listening and learning. We meet with as many people as we can. We join many Facebook groups. We look at as many Instagram posts as we can. We have as many focus groups as we can. We’re literally in the community trying to soak in much information about what people want. We’ll do surveys. We really try to solicit a lot of feedback. As important, if not more so, is speaking to the brands themselves. The brands know better than we do where they’re resonating and where their customer is.”

What’s most required in redeveloping and re-leasing properties, she said, is patience. “Because we’re privately owned, my partners and I have the ability to be patient and to make choices for the long term, both from a tenant mix perspective and an investment perspective. I’ve had so many people, all the big restaurant names, come to me in Palm Beach, looking for the restaurant space where Tutto Mare ultimately opened. There are some big restaurant chains that are extraordinary. We have the Palm Beach Grill here, which is owned and operated by Hillstone. But I wanted a place where the owners would be there, they’d know your name, and take you to your table.”