Nurturing just about anything–A house, plant, toddler, a romantic relationship—requires a deft touch. The same is true of the fragile independent stores that shopping center owners and managers are increasingly seeking to incubate.

A dynamic new mixed-use, open air addition to the North Cincinnati, Ohio market, Liberty Center is now just months away from completion. The project is on schedule to open by the end of 2015. Co-developed by Steiner + Associates and Bucksbaum Retail Properties.

With a diverse economy, educated and skilled workforce, natural resources and vibrant urban centers, Ohio remains a hotbed for real estate development, according to Mario San Marco, president of Cincinnati-based Eagle Realty Group.

In the rich history of mixed-use design and development, retail reigns supreme.

For a large number of retail and mixed-use projects around the country—and for the communities they serve—the public-private partnership has been a game-changer.

Increasingly, developers are building mixed-use centers that include residential, office and entertainment components, which turn them more into a consumer home base and less of a functional destination.

The layout of Liberty Center incorporates many of the recognizably iconic elements that have helped make Steiner mixed-use projects a familiar presence on the industry landscape, as well as a handful of inspired touches that are truly unique.

For retail and mixed-use developers (not to mention civic and community leaders) great public spaces are almost always the showpiece: the smiling shoppers and families you see depicted on the website or brochure aren’t paying at a register or strolling through the parking lot—they are sitting on benches, playing in fountains, or taking a relaxing walk along a tree-lined path.

Perhaps no retail environment is more intriguing from an opportunity standpoint today in the United States than our B&C malls: environments that, for various reasons, have seen declining performance and declining value relative to their Class A counterparts.

For decades, prospective homeowners wanted to escape from dense urban centers and builders responded to this demand by constructing vast, far-flung developments of single-family homes and shopping malls.