Samantha David, president of WS Development, discusses creating a different iteration of the "village center" and the merchandising philosophy supporting the format.

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 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.

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