With 30 store openings this year, Florida has become Five Below’s No. 2 market

The pandemic has not interfered with Five Below’s aggressive expansion plans in the Sunshine State. Thirty new store openings in 2020 gives the brand 93 locations in Florida, making it the brand’s second most covered state after Texas with 109.

Five Below’s expanded footprint there includes malls, town centers, and outdoor shopping centers. New locations include Southland Mall and Mall of the Americas in the southeast, Century Town Center and The Loop in central Florida, and Bay City Point and Shoppes at Paradise Bay in the Panhandle.

Though most of the new Five Belows conform to its 8,500-sq.-ft. prototype, some were expanded to larger layouts to fit in particular centers, according to Marty Hennessy, president of Katz & Associates, which brokered all the new property deals for Five Below.

”We’ve spent time at Five Below’s Philadelphia headquarters and at the flagship store, met with the full team--from the company’s president to the buyers--and learned about current product lines and future plans,” said Hennessy, whose Five Below team of Jon Cashion, Daniel Solomon, and Vanesa Rodriguez have executed more than 60 transactions for the chain.

Hennessy said the team’s Florida work is not done for Five Below and that more deals are in the works.