Rents a one-bedroom apartment in Glendale, Calif., directly above the Cheesecake Factory and Forever 21.
Plenty of shopaholics claim to live at the mall. But when the Americana at Brand opened in Glendale, Calif., in May, shoppers really got a chance to make themselves at home. That's because the $400 million retail complex includes not just Cole Haan, Barnes & Noble and Urban Outfitters but also 100 condos and 238 apartments--part of real estate's mixed-use trend. Since the Americana's opening, however, the economy has taken a tough turn. TIME's Rebecca Winters Keegan asked Lawrence, V.P. of sales at a company that makes motion-sensor trash cans, about life as an early settler at the mall, in good...
