Targeted activity is propelling California’s retail market forward as investors chase core assets and consumers drive demand, despite the continued presence of high costs and development hurdles. California’s retail market is a bit of an enigma nowadays. That’s because it’s both resurgent and restrained, as Jimmy Slusher, senior vice president of CBRE’s National Retail Partners-West team, notes. “Retail in California remains resilient despite a more complex economic and political backdrop,” he explains. “While interest rates remain elevated, debt capital for retail has increased, with strong lender demand and relatively tight …
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Webinar: From Roadblocks to Results: Making Mixed-Use Work in Today’s Market
The September 17 Shopping Center Business webinar “From Roadblocks to Results: Making Mixed-Use Work in Today’s Market,” hosted by Shopping Center Business and sponsored by KTGY, focused on some of the most dynamic and challenging sectors of retail real estate today: mixed-use developments. The panelists covered strategies to make these projects work, including the importance of early stakeholder engagement, working with property owners, municipal leaders and community members, as well as ensuring that projects align with local needs and long-term visions. These retail experts also discussed these key topics and more: Watch this brief webinar …
SoCal Retail Market Fundamentally Strong but Challenged by Space Shortage
If Calvin Short and Terrison Quinn, managing principals at SRS Real Estate Partners, could sum up the Southern California (SoCal) retail investment sales and leasing environment with one word, it would be “undersupplied.” From an investment standpoint, the region lacks depth in available properties for sale, unlike other parts of the country where there have been leverage shifts in favor of the buyer due to oversupply, says Short, who represents buyers and sellers of retail assets nationwide. That’s particularly true in the net-lease space, which is driving some SoCal-based investors …
Florida’s nation-leading population growth and its pro-business reputation continue to underpin retail investment and expansion activity. Vacancy rates in the state’s major metros range from 3.1 percent in Miami to 4.6 percent in Jacksonville, all well below their historical averages, according to CoStar. Investment sales in the markets during the first half of 2025 totaled around $2.5 billion, and each market except for Orlando saw an increase in year-over-year sales, CoStar reports. “Whether it’s buyers of retail properties or retailers looking to open up new locations, they’re all descending on …
Boasting strong, steady real estate fundamentals, unanchored shopping centers remain in high demand — but good luck finding available product to acquire. Investment sales for anchored and unanchored open-air centers remain strong — thanks to their unwavering, stable fundamentals. What makes open-air strips a desirable property type is they are both recession-proof and internet-proof — meaning people will always need the product or service, and they can’t get it online. Rob Holuba, managing director of CenterSquare Investment Management, has a name for these irreplaceable spaces: Essential Service Retail (ESR). In …
Webinar: Retail Bankruptcy & Restructuring — Lessons from 2024 & What’s Ahead
The March 14 Shopping Center Business webinar “Retail Bankruptcy & Restructuring — Lessons from 2024 & What’s Ahead” covered the state of a retail industry that is both “frenetic and cautious,” in the words of Dana Telsey of Telsey Advisory Group. Tune in to the six-minute mark of the on-demand webinar for Dana’s impressive summary of the latest news in retail. Panelists covered key insights into the evolving retail landscape, including the trends for bankruptcies and liquidations in 2024 and whether those trajectories are likely to continue into 2025. Economic …
Chicago — Retail closures are at a cyclical high, totaling a whopping 9,900 business shutdowns in 2024, according to JLL’s fourth-quarter 2024 retail report entitled “United States Retail Market Dynamics.” For the first time in several years, store closures outpaced store openings in a calendar year. Fabric and crafts retailer JOANN, who filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection twice within a year, is shuttering all 800 stores, while major department store chain Macy’s will close 150 stores over the next three years, with 66 closures anticipated in 2025 alone. The highest number …
Disconnects between buyers and sellers, higher interest rates and uncertainty in the market led to a stagnant market for single-tenant retail properties in 2024. Many see an upturn ahead for 2025. Deals are getting done in the net lease sector, just not with the volume or velocity that industry veterans would like to see. Higher interest rates have hampered transactions in most commercial real estate sectors, leading to a slowdown in 1031 transactions, which the net lease sector is extremely dependent upon. Those in the industry are positive about 2025, …
Restaurants Execute Expansion Plans with Measured Approaches
To say that the restaurant industry is sending mixed signals could be the understatement of the year. The National Restaurant Association expected restaurant sales in 2024 to top $1 trillion for the first time ever. But as the year has progressed, the number of operators who anticipated sales growth in the coming months dipped to 28 percent in August from 40 percent in April amid inflation and economic uncertainty, according to the organization’s latest performance index survey. At the same time, the fortunes of the major restaurant segments are largely …
Atlanta’s retail market is defined by high rents, strong demand and obstacles to both sales and development that have stymied activity. In terms of fundamentals, it’s hard to point to a time when Atlanta’s retail market was healthier than it stands today. For starters, the market’s retail space commands the highest asking rental rates on record. Since the end of 2019, Atlanta’s asking rental rates have increased by a mean of 37 percent, according to second-quarter research from Marcus & Millichap. “We are seeing asking rental rates reach all-time highs …