asks, pausing for a moment. He quickly answers his question: “A dreamer thinks up different scenarios but doesn’t necessarily carry them through. A visionary understands a target market, develops a plan, and gets there.” Sheraton Mall, for the husband and wife team, Scott and Sharon Oran, is the culmination of vision, not just a dream. Originally constructed in 1989, Sheraton Mall was a bold experiment when the mall concept was foreign to Barbadians. “Nobody knew about a mall, no one thought about out-of-town shopping,” Oran reflects. The property was a former industrial site that once housed Intel, which shuttered its operations in the region as Silicon Valley outpaced the Caribbean in the tech boom of the 1980s. Oran’s father was part of a group that saw an opportunity in the abandoned space. “Within 18 months, we developed a project plan to convert it into about 35 stores over 90,000 square feet. For the first three years, Sheraton Mall struggled to gain momentum. With only 50% occupancy, Oran and his team were forced to get creative. “The plan was simple: if we couldn’t get the big stores to come in, we’d open our own businesses,” he says matterof-factly. The mall management team pivoted from leasing space to actively running retail ventures.This decision turned the tide, and by 1993, Sheraton Mall had achieved full occupancy. BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE: SUSTAINABILITY AND SMART DESIGN Sheraton Mall’s evolution hasn’t been solely about attracting more tenants.As Oran recounts, the mall’s architecture and operational footprint have been designed with practical constraints and forwardthinking sustainability. “The overall architecture is an interior mall concept,” he explains, noting that the design stems from the original structure’s limitations. “Because of the way the building was constructed, we were constrained in how we could expand.” With a layout that offered a natural fit for a controlled environment, Sheraton Mall was set up with roughly six to eight entrances, all under tight management control. “Essentially, when one door opens, the whole mall opens,” he says, highlighting the synergy between tenant needs and the central management team. However, expanding the mall wasn’t just about adding more space—it required considering the climate, environment, and the mall’s impact on both. Conscious of the long-term implications of maintaining a building in the Caribbean, Oran’s team has meticulously incorporated sustainable practices wherever possible.“The building we currently occupy is over 50 years old,” he points out. Despite its age, Scott and Sharon Oran 27 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 11, ISSUE 11 SHERATON MALL
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