BEACHWOOD, Ohio - Before a brick was laid, Beachwood Place was envisioned as an upscale mall with stores unique to Greater Cleveland. The mall has stayed true to that vision over the years.

Saks Fifth Avenue, one of the original anchors, opened its first Ohio store at Beachwood Place. Nordstrom has its only Cleveland-area store in the mall, as do specialty shops like kate spade new york, Michael Kors, The LEGO Store and Madewell.

That exclusivity has contributed to the mall's staying power. While other malls have struggled or closed - and others like the nearby Severance Town Center were redesigned as plazas - Beachwood Place has remained strong.

Heidi Yanok, spokeswoman for the mall's Chicago-based owner, General Growth Properties, said the mall's occupancy rate exceeds 90 percent. She said the mall's continuous reinvention is key to its success.

Joe Khouri - first vice president with CBRE, a global real estate consultant and investor with offices in Cleveland - agreed that Beachwood Place thrives because it offers shoppers high-end retail stores they can't find elsewhere. The location - not far from downtown Cleveland and off I-271 - is also prime.

But Beachwood Place is not as unique as it once was. Other upmarket centers are emerging along the 271 corridor.

Eton Chagrin Boulevard has the East Side's only Apple Store and lululemon athletica store. And Pinecrest has promised luxury retailers in Orange. Legacy Village recently signed with Capital Grille, a restaurant that had planned to open in the Beachwood Place parking lot.

"When you start to see higher-end goods in other properties, you'll slowly see competition get a piece of the market," Khouri said.

To remain competitive, Beachwood Place will soon undergo its second major expansion, adding another 40,000 square feet between Nordstrom and Saks. On Thursday, the Beachwood Planning Commission approved the plan.

"We are looking to stay relevant in a very competitive retail market," said Jonathan Lim, corporate architect with GGP. Otherwise, he said, "other projects will try to steal our tenants."

Birth & growth

Beachwood Place opened in 1978, a project of the Rouse Co., a mall developer in Baltimore. At the time, malls were popping up all over. A few miles away, Randall Park Mall opened in 1976, and at the time was the world's largest shopping center, with 2 million square feet of retail space.

Originally, Beachwood Place measured 450,000 square feet. The first anchors were Higbee's and Saks, and the mall housed 110 specialty stores.

In the 1997, Rouse finished building a new wing with about 20 stores, and added a third anchor, Nordstrom. Saks grew. By that time, Higbee's had become Dilliard's, which added a third floor.

GGP bought all Rouse properties, including Beachwood Place, in 2004.

Almost immediately, GGP launched a $15 million renovation. The food court was moved from the first floor to the second floor.

"We did this to open more room for seating and add retailers along the main entrance," Yanok said.

Those new retailers included a two-story H&M, a trendy European clothing shop, and Maggiano's Little Italy restaurant.

The main entrance was renovated and expanded, and a sculpture by artist Jeffrey Laudenslager was installed there. GGP organized a contest among Hilltop Elementary School fifth-graders to name the sculpture. The winning name was "Imaginetic."

Controversial situations

When Beachwood Place announced its latest expansion in 2013, City Council allowed GGP to use residential land for the project and lifted deed restrictions that prohibited using that land for business purposes.

That didn't go over well with neighbors, who initiated a grassroots effort to seek voter control over residential-to-commercial rezonings. However, their petition drive failed to gather enough signatures to place the issue on the November 2013 ballot.

The expansion - planned for the west side of the mall, facing Richmond Road - will feature about five new tenant spaces, which will house a mix of retail shops and fast-casual restaurants.

Instead of an exterior blank wall, with storefronts only inside the mall, the new shops will have entrances outside, the latest hybrid-style trend in shopping centers.

"If you look across the United States, you will see a growing number of projects adding outside-facing shops," said James Heller, an architect working on the Beachwood Place project. "It's a re-imaging of the mall."

GGP will also build two new freestanding buildings, measuring a total of about 20,000 square feet, in the northeast parking lot, near Cedar Road. Restaurants are slated for both buildings.

However, GGP has work ahead of it. Lim said his firm has not signed any new tenants yet. And previously announced deals with Seasons 52 and Capital Grille have fallen through. Capital Grille instead will move into Legacy Village across the street.

Khouri believes Beachwood Place will fare well in the evolving competitive landscape.

"The fundamentals of this property are as good as it gets, as far as location," Khouri said. "It just a matter leasing the right tenants that are complimentary to the anchors and core tenant mix that has made the property the success it has been."