An Alternative Use for Shopping Centers: Beehives
David Moin
ShopCore Properties is creating a lot of buzz.
The real estate company is installing beehives in 30 of its 50-plus shopping centers around the country, in recognition of Earth Day and furthering its sustainability initiatives. Beekeepers are being hired.
Last year, the privately held ShopCore piloted an urban beekeeping program installed at two properties in 2021.
“Sustainability is central to our mission, our mandate and our purpose,” Corinne Rico, director of sustainability for ShopCore Properties, said in a statement Monday. “From our properties to our communities, prioritizing the environment is part of how we do business. Installing beehives is one more layer to our sustainability and environmental goals. Bees play an exceedingly important role in a thriving ecosystem and the honey they produce is rich in antioxidants. So bees are advantageous for not only the environment but also your health.”
ShopCore will install the beehives during 2022 and will harvest the honey in the fall. The honey will then be packaged and offered to communities as gifts. Each beehive will have about 50,000 bees and will be cared for by local beekeepers, the company indicated. ShopCore has partnered with Alvéole, an urban beekeeping company.
A majority of the beehives will be located on the top of the building’s roofs, with a few on green spaces on the property, including in the back of parking lots.
Rico said each ShopCore property will have its own set of solutions to advance sustainability and that overall, the company looks to partner with tenants to achieve sustainability goals.
ShopCore said its sustainability solutions include benchmarking and tracking energy consumption; green leasing practices; reducing energy, water, and waste; installing renewable energy systems; incorporating sustainability into all business decisions, and installing electric vehicle charging stations across its parking areas.
ShopCore, an affiliate of The Blackstone Group, manages 50-plus community, power and grocery-anchored centers, almost all in open-air formats, covering about 20 million square feet across 19 states. Retail tenants include Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, Ross Stores and Home Goods, among others. Key properties include One Colorado in Pasadena, Calif.; Downtown Palm Beach Gardens in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., and The Shops At SkyView Center, an enclosed center in Flushing, N.Y.
An Alternative Use for Shopping Centers: Beehives (yahoo.com)
