The easy sites are gone. The linear development process — pick the site, draw the plans, permit, build — no longer reflects the reality of retail development today.
In this Retail Insight interview from ICSC Las Vegas, reporter Nellie Day sits down with Dan Duke, COO, and Ryan Hatfield, director of market advancement for retail at Bohler, to discuss what’s going wrong on retail development projects and what the smartest developers are doing differently.
Their core argument: most timeline and budget problems aren’t lost in construction — they’re lost at the very beginning, in the weeks and months before a civil engineer ever gets called. From stormwater approvals running on separate tracks to transformer lead times stretching 40 to 60 weeks, the surprises that derail projects are rarely surprises at all — they’re foreseeable problems that get missed when the right expertise isn’t in the room early enough.
Watch the video to hear Duke and Hatfield walk through the hidden costs that show up late — and why Bohler is launching a four-part series to get these lessons in front of developers.
Retail Insight is a sponsored video series produced by Shopping Center Business, capturing insights from leading retail real estate firms at ICSC Las Vegas 2026. Click here to subscribe.