It's as a catchy name, meticulous landscaping and an environmental theme, but the Plaza at The Mall in Columbia is falling short on sales, and managers at the retail center hope an advertising campaign inside the mall and in local publications will draw more customers.

Mall management has increased signs inside the mall and on mall property, and has run ads in local newspapers hoping to draw shoppers' attention to the freestanding restaurants and L.L. Bean. A mall spokeswoman said management is "very pleased" with the plaza, but some retailers there say they've seen fewer sales this year than last, and at least one expressed concern that other draws expected to increase traffic, such as a movie theater, have not materialized.

According to Stanley Eichelbaum, a former Rouse employee and president of Ohio-based Marketing Developments Inc., - which has helped design similar centers internationally during the past 10 years - a theater is a key component that is missing from the Plaza.

"There's a need to anchor these [restaurants]. Traditionally that is done with a lifestyle retailer or large-scale bookstores and theaters [that] generate this passer-by traffic and the synergistic traffic for the restaurants," Eichelbaum said. "The movie theater is very, very key. [The center] can be done without the theater, but not as beneficially."

The Plaza is based on a concept in mall design, called a hybrid, that developers are building in some of the larger shopping centers throughout the country. Rouse has tried the concept at several properties. Hybrid malls combine the typical indoor shopping of a mall with outdoor, freestanding retailers located adjacent to the structure and on mall property.

Consultants say the concept is both new and old in that other retailers - and particularly restaurants - traditionally have located near successful malls. The hybrid concept simply brings those retailers closer to the mall in hopes it will encourage more business for both, and persuade shoppers stay longer.

In Columbia, the center has been promoted since its beginning as an entertainment plaza and the Rouse Co.'s attempt to enhance Columbia's nightlife, but it offers little entertainment: In addition to the L.L. Bean store, the Plaza has restaurants P.F. Chang's China Bistro, Z'Tejas Southwestern Grill, and Champps Americana, for a combined complex of more than 100,000 square feet. Two other parcels in the center are available for development.

Mall management plans to open a temporary skating rink for the winter months, and reportedly it also has told tenants that it expects to open a 68,000- square-foot AMC movie theater to the property - as was expected two years ago, when developers were planning a 10- screen theater for the center. Mall spokeswoman Karen Geary said there was "no updated information" on bringing a theater to the mall.

Jamie Welsh, general manager at Champps, said more entertainment components would help.

"The reason we came to this location is because of the movie theater, so we can't wait for that to open," he said.

Welsh said that although the restaurant recently had its second-busiest Saturday since last year's Christmas shopping season, that location's sales have been lower than his company's national average, primarily because of low bar tabs and very little late-night business.

A spokeswoman for P.F. Chang's said the Columbia location was doing about average and growing, but Curry Dodson, general manager at Z'Tejas, said his store was "not doing the same sales as last year." He was optimistic, however, that the mall's marketing plan would help draw customers.

"They're trying to make this the focal point of the mall," he said. "They want people to come and spend the day."

Mark Millman, president and founder of the Owings Mills-based Millman Search Group, said low sales at the Plaza could be a reflection of a poor economy and nothing more.

"The economic downturn this country is in may have some impact on people's level of interest on going shopping," he said. "You've got some excellent restaurants, but if people are not going shopping, they're not going to the restaurants, either."

Mark London, president of Mark London & Associates Inc., a retail and real estate consulting agency, said the Plaza simply might be experiencing growing pains.

He said the hybrid-mall concept is too young to be declared a success or failure, as the first ones in the United States were built in the late 1990s. He noted, however, that he has seen developers struggle in these early years to create the right mix of stores.

"Landlords are fiddling with this retail mix and trying to get it right," he said. "Most of the landlords are struggling with the nonentertainment components - what do they want to be out there, and not in the mall."

What the Rouse Co. has done is likely a good strategic move, both to add to their center and to incorporate newer trends in retailing, London said. And despite retailers' concerns about sales, he said, the restaurants are likely generating about $10 million annually.

"That's pretty powerful," he said.

"What Rouse has done in terms of offensive and a defensive move, they've added an entertainment component, which is fairly smart," he said. "These sort of separate freestanding components haven't been around long enough to have a tried-and-true methodology of what works and what doesn't, but there seems to be far more in favor [of saying] that an entertainment component and an far-reaching retail like L.L. Bean is a good mix."