Shops at Waterloo Town Square

[MidTowner]

Downtown malls have long tried to beat suburban malls at their own game. Tends to not work that well.

Exactly. It's ridiculous to compare Market Square to The Boardwalk. The latter is brand-new green field development; the former is pushing forty years old, in a dense urban area with all of the costs that comes with that when space needs to be reconfigured for new tenants- and everything else.

Part of suburban malls' business model is to externalize the costs of parking so it seems "free" to their patrons who drive. Inner-city malls can't really do that, given that their parking is in very costly parking structures. They need to find some other way to compete. I think they can, but they won't be able to beat suburban malls at their own game, as I think you very aptly say, plam.