But developers insist that South Towne Center's new outdoor shopping village set to open next year won't be a carbon copy of The Gateway, the downtown Salt Lake City development that shook up the state's retail industry when it opened its open-air shopping center four years ago.

Santa Monica, Calif., mall operator Macerich Co. said Thursday its development will be a first for Utah: an open-air "lifestyle" shopping complex attached to a traditional climate-controlled enclosed mall.

The new outdoor village will contain 100,000 square feet of shops and restaurants and approximately 20,000 square feet of common area. Construction is set to begin this year with completion scheduled for late 2007.

As with other open-air centers, people will enter stores and restaurants from outdoor walkways. Features such as water fountains, park benches and a childrens' play area are planned to encourage people to gather outside. And like Gateway, South Towne's shopping village will attempt to lure upscale tenants.

"Lifestyle centers like this are what consumers want," said Gregory Zimmerman, vice president of real estate for Macerich Co.

Several people visiting Gateway on Thursday said they enjoy the open-air shopping center concept so much that such a center in South Towne would prompt them to visit the mall more than they do.

Kenneth Key, for example, said he drives from Lehi to downtown Salt Lake City regularly to take his kids to the Clark Planetarium and Gateway's fountains. His children, ages 2 and 5, love to run around in the fountain area during the summer months, soaking themselves. Even in colder months, they watch the fountains from nearby park benches.

An open-air center with fountains "would be great for us," Key said. "I definitely would go to South Towne more often."

Macerich has owned the nearly 20-year-old South Towne since 1997. The mall is one of the largest in the West, with about 150 stores and restaurants in about 957,000 square feet of space. An additional 343,000 square feet of retail space surrounds the mall and contains tenants such as Target.

Zimmerman said his company has plenty of experience not only as a mall owner and developer but as a company that has successfully attached open-air shopping complexes to enclosed malls. It recently did just that with Fresno Fashion Fair in California, with The Village at Fashion Fair, he said.

The Village includes outdoor seating and grassy areas and an outdoor children's interactive water play area similar to Gateway's popular shooting water fountains.

Stores in that open-air center include The Cheesecake Factory, Bebe, Brookstone, Lucky Brand Jeans, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, with Anthropologie and Flemings Steakhouse set to open this year.

South Towne's outdoor village will be physically connected to the enclosed mall. Zimmerman said his company would not divulge any of the retail or restaurant tenants that will be added until leases are signed but did say most will occupy about 5,000 square feet to 6,000 square feet of space each.

He said many enclosed shopping malls are failing not because shoppers are tired of the concept but because mall operators fail to keep them viable.

"You have to stay competitive," he said.

Celeste Neil, South Towne's senior property manager, said South Towne is doing "extremely well," has high occupancy rates and that the addition will help it remain a popular shopping destination and community gathering place.

Chris Gentzkow, senior associate at CB Richard Ellis commercial brokerage, agrees.

"While some malls have struggled, South Towne has done really well," Gentzkow said. "It struggled when it first opened and then just took off."

lesley@sltrib.com