With the exception of a couple of stores like (Arizona's only French Connection and 42 Saint) and a handful of good restaurants there really isn't anything here that's distinctive enough for me make the trek up to Kierland Commons more regularly.
The mixed-use retail/office/residential development is a novel effort here in Phoenix - so bonus points on that. It's essentially a faux-urban main street-like shopping mall with no department stores.
Nerd alert -- urban planning observation. The fact that Kierland faces inward forces the center turns its back on Scottsdale Rd just like a conventional mall - defeating its own effort to be urban.
Anyhow. It's pretty much a mix of chain stores (like Z Gallerie, J Crew, Barnes and Noble, and PF Changs) that you can find elsewhere in Scottsdale. Yawn.