General Growth Properties, which owns and manages the Alderwood Mall, is a massive operation. Alderwood’s 1.3 million square feet of retail space accounts for just 1.2 percent of GGP’s total square footage across the country. Its Ala Moana center in Honolulu, at nearly twice the size of Alderwood, is the world’s largest outdoor shopping center. (Perhaps you’ll recall GGP from the financial crisis of 2008, when it reported $25 billion in debt and its stocks lost 97 percent of their value in six months.)
But talking to Carol Hildahl, GGP’s marketing manager and talent booker for Alderwood, Bellis Fair in Bellingham, and Westlake Center in downtown Seattle, doesn’t feel like a cold encounter with a corporate behemoth—she’s almost supernaturally warm and chipper. Hildahl has worked in the business for over 30 years, 10 in the mall-management industry and 20 years as a retail manager before that. “All of my holidays have been in malls,” she says. The key to booking live talent in a mall, she says, is finding groups that are slightly more distinctive than the sonic wallpaper of mall music—but not too distinctive. “We want it to be family-friendly, with musical neutrality so it will appeal to a broad audience,” she says…
