As some shopping centers struggle amid the changing retail landscape, the Shops of Saddle Creek in Germantown continues to draw people.
The parking lots are lled as customers enjoy the walkability and variety of retailers the site provides at the western edge of the suburb’s Central Business District. The
uniqueness of the individual businesses — some of which are not available elsewhere in the Memphis metropolitan area — make Saddle Creek a destination spot.
“It’s like breaking down a mall or department store,” said Janie Day, president of Germantown Chamber of Commerce. “You don’t have to go through a bunch
of riffraff.”
By most accounts, Saddle Creek was the birth of lifestyle centers when Dan Poag and Terry McEwen used the concept on Bruce Taylor’s family-owned elds. Poag had a background in shopping centers but decided to take his idea to the next level creating convenient open-air shopping centers with specialty stores and restaurants.
Taylor allowed the land to be transformed into a shopping center in the 1980s. Everything was north of Poplar Avenue and the curving road of West Farmington Boulevard didn’t even exist between Germantown Road and Poplar. Shops now lying west of West Farmington were…
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