Oct 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Michael Fickes

Mixed-use real estate developments are re-inventing security

Of the 3,000 or so retail shopping centers in the United States, a little more than 130 of them mix together various kinds of commercial real estate space including retail, entertainment, office, residential apartments, condominiums and hotels.

Called mixed-use developments, these properties are proliferating like wildfire. And they are re-energizing the retail shopping center business, while adding to the security challenge.

Mixed-use developments are revitalizing residential areas in urban cores; they are making sustainable, environmentally-friendly communities around mass transit stops; they are adding town centers to suburban bedroom communities; and they are providing central gathering places for several rural communities.

Security considerations affect the design of mixed-use developments, as well as the security strategies developed to protect the developments and the selection of security technologies.

Crime prevention design
Most mixed-use developments contain similar kinds of space. They include retail, entertainment and one or more other kinds of commercial and residential space.

In physical design, however, the developments differ dramatically from one another, usually depending upon how the space is allocated among the various uses.

In addition, mixed-use projects generally contain streets with on-street parking, and individual retail, restaurant and entertainment storefronts located at street level. The buildings, which may rise two to several stories, may feature apartments, condominiums and offices on the upper floors. In some developments, single-family homes and high-rise condominium or apartment towers spring up next to the retail and office development. In other cases, mixed-use developments surround urban mass transit stops.

Given the complexity of mixed-use centers, security receives a lot of attention during the design of the property. Chief among the design techniques related to security is Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), says Jonathan G. Lusher, ICCPA, executive vice president and principal consultant with IPC International in Bannockburn, Ill.

“Right now, our firm is working on CPTED concepts for three mixed-use centers in suburban developments,” says Lusher. “And we're preparing to start a fourth in India.”

According to Lusher, CPTED dictates first and foremost that designs eliminate architectural techniques that form nooks or hiding places inside and outside of a structure.

Beyond that consideration, mixed-use creates a number of issues for designers to address with CPTED in mind. “You are not just designing a shopping center, an office building or a condominium development,” Lusher says. “You are designing several types of properties, and you have to think carefully about the interfaces between each.”

For instance, he continues, a person may visit the property to shop, eat dinner or see a movie, but he or she should not be able to enter a lobby leading to an office suite or a group of apartments.

While access control technology will control the doors in this example, CPTED design controls the flow of people starting at the parking lot. “Sometimes we use physical barriers to separate public parking spaces from office and residential parking,” Lusher says. “Office workers and residents also want guaranteed parking spaces, so we'll provide spaces for them in enclaves close to the office and residential sections.”

Issues affecting mixed-use security strategies
With or without a qualified CPTED design, security professionals must develop security strategies tailored to the individual designs of mixed-use facilities.

Unlike malls, which feature the same general design concept, mixed-use developments are different from project to project, and so the approach to security must necessarily change. “There is no single model for security at a mixed-use development,” says Donald H. Green, a principal with Strategic Security Concepts Inc., a consulting firm based in Skaneateles, N.Y. “Each is handled differently because of the configuration of the buildings, the locations of the different uses, the streets and the parking facilities.”

No matter what kind of property needs to be secured, Green begins building a security strategy by working up a threat analysis based on four factors:

• The location of the center and the kinds of buildings located around it.
• The nature and use of the property: Consider the configuration of the development; the office and retail tenant mix, the entertainment concepts and restaurants; the balance between apartments and condominiums; and which property types are adjacent to each other.
• The demographics, which provide insight into what kind of security operation the property will require. Is it in a wealthy and highly-educated community? Is it a stable middle-class community?
• The history of crime on the property and in the surrounding neighborhood.

Green notes that developers generally negotiate agreements with local jurisdictions during the permitting process. These agreements will assign certain security responsibilities to the developer and others to the police.

In the case of a mixed-use center, the agreements may assign unusual responsibilities to the private security team. Mixed-use centers, for example, have streets. Are these city streets or private streets? Who will patrol the streets? Private security or the police?

“Typically, police departments don't want to delegate anything to private security that goes beyond what private security normally does,” Green says. “But if there are narrow streets, they may create an official relationship between the department and the private security group and allow security officers to write tickets.

“Whether or not private security's responsibilities go beyond normal, the security director, supervisor and senior officers need to have a relationship with the police department. Who is the local police patrol commander? How will that person work with security people?”

Security directors will also meet with representatives from associations of apartment owners as well as condo associations to discuss security expectations on the one hand and capabilities on the other. These discussions will cover issues such as what private security can and will do and when the police will be called to come onto the property.

Security technologies and mixed-use
In a way, security technology, both old and new, is making mixed-use centers practical.

Take access control. Malls do not use card access control. Keys, gates and a patrolling security officer are reasonably effective and much less expensive. If something gets stolen, it is unfortunate, but not a tragedy.

On the other hand, security at mixed-use centers must take into account residents that remain on the property continuously. It is unacceptable for a resident's car to be stolen, for his or her home to be burglarized or for someone living on the property to become the victim of violent crime.

In a mixed-use center, doors to lobbies with elevators leading to residences on upper floors probably should have electronic controls with card or biometric access, says David Levenberg, senior vice president with the mall security division of Andrews International and formerly the director of security for General Growth Properties, a Chicago-based mall owner. Levenberg also recommends card access for the elevators, so that if someone followed a resident into a lobby he or she would get stuck on the ground floor.

Offices, back doors and loading docks for the retail shops, restaurants and parking lots will also benefit from the increased security provided by electronic card access control, Levenberg continues.

For parking garages and other public areas in mixed-use properties, Levenberg recommends emergency call boxes with associated video cameras. “You will have residents walking dogs late at night out along the street,” he says. “If something happens, the resident goes to the call box, pushes a button to speak to a security officer, while a camera swings around and focuses on the caller.”

“Malls often do not deploy video camera systems, but it is difficult not to install cameras in a mixed-use center.”

While there is no legal requirement to monitor live video captured by security cameras, unless monitoring has for some reason been written into a contract, Levenberg says a mixed-use owner will be much better off if the cameras are monitored.

Of course, there is never any guarantee that a security officer monitoring video will see an incident.

Levenberg, Green and Lusher all express interest in an emerging technology called video analytics, which automates the job of monitoring video. “This is an exciting, affordable technology that is beginning to push intelligence out into the cameras and digital video recorders,” Lusher says.

According to Levenberg, Andrews International has been talking to video analytics companies about developing analytics tied to behaviors that mixed-use security officers look for.

The company is currently experimenting with an analytic that sends an alarm upon what is called “lurking behavior.” “Suppose someone has gotten into the lobby of a residential building but cannot make the access controlled elevator work,” Levenberg says. “So the person goes into the stairwell. A system that identifies lurking will alarm on this behavior and tell the officer in the security center.”

Other behaviors that Andrews International wants video analytics to detect include intercept behavior. If a camera sees one person walking in a parking lot or garage and one or more other people walking on an intercept path with the first person, the system will alarm. “It may not be anything,” Levenberg says. “But it might be trouble, and we would like to make sure.”

Andrews International has also asked about detecting a vehicle behavior in a parking lot. In this case, the system would alarm when a vehicle in a parking lot drives up and down the aisles ignoring available parking spaces.

“We're also interested in standard motion detection,” Levenberg says. “We would use this in cameras set in service corridors or elevator lobbies. When there is movement, video would come up on a monitor in the security center so that an officer can check it. If it is a resident coming in, the operator can greet the individual over an intercom system. If it is a bad guy, the officer will dispatch help.”

Levenberg also touts another emerging camera technology for mixed-use developments: a 360-degree camera. “Suppose you place a camera on the ceiling in the middle of a lobby,” he says. “The operator can only see where the camera is looking at any given time. If something happens behind the camera, the operator won't see it, nor will it be recorded.

“With a 360-degree camera, the operator still can see only where the camera is looking, however, the camera will record a 360-degree view. So even if I'm notified after the fact that an assault took place, I can still review the recording,” he says.

Many of these techniques and technologies are in use at Santana Row in San Jose, Calif., a mixed-use center with retail, restaurants, spas, a hotel and residences developed by Federal Realty Investment Trust, based in Rockville, Md.

“They have an arrangement with the San Jose Police Department, which patrols the property at designated times,” says Green, who helped Santana Row select a contract security company.

The center also uses electronic access control in the parking garages and the entrances to the condominium lobbies. The hotel on the property has set up its own security team, which is common. Retailers are also responsible for security in their shops, just as they would be in a mall.

Dozens of cameras ring the property, monitoring the parking garages and the common areas along the walkways in front of the shops.

Security officers patrol the property 24-hours a day, while officers staff the property's security center monitoring the video and access control system.

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