So, this is not intended as a completed lot. This is just a suggestion and a starting place. Basically I was supposed to be doing something else, but had a nagging idea, so I opened up the copy of Emerald Flats I made the group home in and tried it out. I got the core all right but the fringes quickly frustrated me, as there's so much I wanted that can't be done in base game - a patio centered around a fountain, for example.

Anyway, the idea here is that Emerald Heights has one of the earliest C.J. Peggey's chain department stores in the country, and when the mall developers wanted to build there the historical commission wouldn't let them demolish it, so they just made the building the center portion of the mall. This sort of thing is done all the time in historic cities like mine.

I set off the original C.J. Peggey's in brick on the outside, for ready identification, and the way that's laid out is exactly the way I'd envisioned. It's got all the available old department store staples - the mezzanine, the grand entrance, the piped-in music, the high platform with the would-be classy ornamentation, the third floor with offices and restrooms in the back, the fire escape (which I'm sure can be done better; I couldn't figure out how to switchback it without making it too prominent).

The wings and patio are a mess and I quickly got frustrated and gave up - hence the complete lack of fine detail or proper arrangement. There's a lot of lot there, and not much to build a store with in base game. I didn't even try to place shopping items or the arcade and my attempt to place landscaping was abortive. But I thought perhaps someone who's better at it could take a look and see what I did wrong and how it ought to go instead. Or y'all can just reject it out of hand, no hard feelings.

Dang, I should've taken pictures so y'all could take a look without opening the pack. Sorry. I didn't even think about having Fraps on.