News and Events
Tortoise or Hare?
Large-cap and mid-cap markets offer retail's best long-term bets.
May 30, 2010 Commercial Property Executive Paul Rosta
News of an apparent thaw in retail has been spreading this spring, offering the retail real estate industry a welcome surprise. Much of the excitement is stemming from improved same-store sales. In March, leading national chains boosted their comparable sales 9 percent compared to March 2009, the International Council of Shopping Centers reported in early April. That performance was the strongest one-year gain for national chains in 11 years. And for the first time since July 2007, ICSC’s monthly survey of retail real estate executives conveyed the impression of a market showing improvement, though still decidedly mixed.
For retailers, investors, developers and advisers, then, the current climate suggests a market in transition. “Search for stability” rather than “expanding footprints” will be watchwords for at least the next 12 to 18 months, contend veteran industry watchers. “Most retailers are not in an expansion mode again,” explained Ivan Friedman, president & CEO of RCS Real Estate Advisors, which specializes in advising large national chains with 300 to 2,200 stores. “Their capacity for opening new stores is not what it was four or five years ago.”