Lloyd Center‘s owners spent a lot of time and money in the past two years trying to make sure the mall’s east end is in fashion. This season, they’re back with a new look.

The first program didn’t quite fit, but the Portland Design Commission assured them the new approach promises to be much more attractive. And with a little further persuasion, Cypress Equities may have its return approved.

The Dallas-based developer revisited the Design Commission on Thursday seeking significant changes to a design approved by the commission in April 2018. Those plans called for a remake of the mall’s east end with a Regal movie theater and office space.

“It was a hard decision to make,” Kirk Williams, Cypress Equities’ managing director, told the commission. “We had it designed. We could have gone forward. But we did not want to go forward with a design that would not be successful.”

Changes were made in response to tepid retail demand and some issues with the office design, he said.

“The retail market – let’s say the commercial markets – are very fluid,” Williams said. “Change is happening very quick. Sometimes information is coming faster than we can design. From lease-ability, particularity on the office level, we had challenges – significant challenges.”

The new design from LDA Design Group of Burbank, California, and 505 Design‘s Boulder, Colorado, office, calls for stacking the movie theater in a taller structure. Ground-floor office space has been removed in favor of bringing the theater lobby to the ground floor. The former Sears building will become an office building, with a design that lets in natural light.

The theater lobby will now front the corner of Northeast 15th Avenue and Multnomah Street.

“You guys always wanted the theater lobby at the corner of 15th and Multnomah, and guess what – we’re giving it to you,” said Nick Igel, partner at 505 Design.

Prospective office tenants had said the office space in the Sears building was too dark, Williams said. Changes will include an atrium to bring in natural light.

“We’ve taken two buildings that were very inward looking to as outward looking as we can,” Igel said. “There’s a huge transition to what’s there now and what we’re proposing.”

The theater building will grow from the previously approved design’s height of 78 feet, 9 inches, to 106 feet, 4 inches, with a smaller footprint. More glazed glass will be added to the frontages.

Commissioners said some aspects of the new design, like a pedestrian breezeway fronting the office building, are better in line with guidelines.

“This is a huge improvement,” Commissioner Jessica Molinar said. “The move from office to theater adds so many more people, so much more activity – a much better response to guidelines.”

Molinar was less enthused by a stair tower that takes up a street corner – something discouraged by city design guidelines – and she expressed concern about an oriel window that hangs over the sidewalk.

Thursday’s meeting marked at least the 10th Design Commission hearing for Lloyd Center since 2017. In addition to the east end changes, a major renovation is coming to the mall’s west end for a Live Nation concert venue to become an anchor.

Taken together, the changes represent a major shift away from traditional anchor retail stores to entertainment spaces. Brands such as Sears, Nordstrom, J.C. Penney and others have hemorrhaged retail locations.

“We’re keenly listening to the market, and it is telling us what to do,” Williams said in a brief interview after the meeting concluded. “The market always wins.”

The project team will proceed to a Type III design review hearing, said Don Linane, a partner at LDA Design Group.

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Beauty may be only skin deep, but Portland design commissioners would like a little more beauty on the skin of a proposed Lloyd Center movie theater conversion.

The proposal calls for renovation of the four-story Sears space at the east end of the Lloyd Center into a 14-screen movie theater for Regal Cinemas, along with office and retail space. The theater would also have a restaurant and bar and concessions.

The project went before the Design Commission for advice Thursday. Commissioners largely backed a staff report that recommended denial.

Commissioners criticized aspects of the design from LDA Design Group of Burbank, California, and 505 Design of Boulder, Colorado, particularly the metal cladding on stories two through four. The design proposes metal panels in 12 gradations of brown and red tones meant to mimic brick masonry, a material used on Lloyd Center exteriors in the past and present.

“There’s too many things going on,” Commissioner Tad Savinar said.

Commissioner Andrew Clarke agreed.

“Simplicity of the façade would go a long way to a much better building,” he said.

Commissioners urged the designers to return with a more straightforward exterior as shown in examples brought by the applicants, including the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow, Russia.

The masonry-colored metal façade reflects the Lloyd Center’s past and future, architects said.

“We think metal’s a futuristic material,” 505 Design partner Nick Igel said.

The renovation of the Sears space would expand the building by approximately 20,000 square feet, to 166,308 square feet. The movie theater would occupy 76,400 square feet on the third floor. Levels one and two would serve as office or retail space.

The proposed renovation would reach 86 feet in height, well below the 150-foot limit for the site. Aesthetically, the ground floor emphasizes glass and transparency. Commissioners praised the ground-floor design for contributing to an active pedestrian streetscape. The metal box sits atop the glass base.

Some commissioners said the project was limited by its use – based on an existing building, and needing a dark interior to serve as a movie theater.

“I just think it’s a difficult project to pull off when you have spaces that need to be dark in a box that already exists,” Clarke said.

He said the metal cladding needs “better articulation.”

Lloyd Center owner Cypress Equities of Dallas is looking to transform the retail space as part of a move among malls nationwide away from traditional anchor stores. Retailers such as Macy’s, J.C. Penney’s and Nordstrom have closed stores in malls across the country.

Sears sold the Lloyd Center space to the mall owners for $11.5 million in August 2016. Sears later announced it would close the store.

The Lloyd Center recently underwent a $50 million makeover that involved rebuilding and shrinking the mall’s iconic ice rink. The mall’s owners have also been eager to take advantage of the office market, leasing 36,500 square feet to Providence Health & Services.

The project is tentatively scheduled to return before the Design Commission for a work session Feb. 15. A design review hearing would follow at a later date.

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