BLOG POSTS BY THIS AUTHOR
October 2019
Oct 11
The Experience-to-Stuff Ratio
It’s no secret that a successful retail center of any kind in 2019 — be it an outdoor center or an enclosed mall — must re-jigger its mix to include a wide variety of food, beverage, and entertainment-based tenants.
ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR
May 2021
May 14
Former Burlington space at New Jersey Mall to become a fulfillment center
Tenants such as Dick’s, Boscov’s, Aeropostale, and Victoria’s Secret at Cumberland Mall in Vineland, N.J., may soon find delivery of their online orders moving out faster and easier.
May 13
Mall of America is back in (show) business
Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., has been without a cinema since last spring when CMX filed for bankruptcy and closed its operation in the mall.
May 13
Hines sells The Rim, busiest open-air center in Texas
San Antonio’s The Rim, at 1.6 million sq. ft the largest power center in Texas, has been sold by the Hines Global REIT Liquidating Trust for an undisclosed sum.
May 12
The Comedy Shrine re-opens in a Chicagoland mall
The Comedy Shrine, a comedy club run by a former trouper at Chicago’s Second City improv theater, has moved into Fox Valley Center in Aurora, Ill.
May 11
April traffic report is optimistic about top-tier malls regaining their stature
PREIT CEO Joe Coradino has a “winner-take-all” theory that lesser malls will close in most markets and better malls will capture their customers and flourish.
May 05
Maui’s largest mall struggles to survive
Queen Ka’ahumanu Center, the largest mall on the Hawaiian island of Maui for 50 years, may be facing its demise.
May 04
Brookfield gives three malls back to banks
As part of a $6.5 billion deal that will make it a private company, Brookfield Property Partners returned three malls to their creditors, according to a report from KCP Research.
May 03
Tanger chooses Fillogic to handle online fulfillment for its outlets
After testing a Fillogic micro-distribution hub at its Deer Park Center in Long Island, Tanger Factory Outlets has announced it will expand the third-party logistics company’s system across its entire portfolio.
April 2021
Apr 30
Luxury retailers flock to Legacy West
The suburbs north of Dallas have long been a target for expanding retailers, and the Legacy West development in Plano has been snaring some of the most coveted brands.
Apr 29
PREIT reports leasing 600K sq. ft. of mall space in Q1
Leasing activity at PREIT properties during the first quarter of 2021 strongly contradicts a popular notion that malls will all perish post-pandemic.
Apr 28
Two-thirds of Americans think smaller cities and suburbs are cooler than major metros
Remote working has led millions of people to abandon apartments in major metros and move to smaller cities and suburbs.
Apr 28
Leasing activity’s on the rise in New Jersey, top broker says
Following a year when leasing activity declined by almost 30% in her state, a top broker in New Jersey sees a significant uptick in retail expansion with strong brands like Planet Fitness, Dollar Tree, and Five Below eagerly snapping up empty spaces.
Apr 28
Retail is rekindled on a former brownfield site in Baltimore
Two Baltimore guys named David Bramble and Peter Pinkard recently accomplished something few in town thought could be done.
Apr 26
My Eyelab sets its eyes on isolated locations
For folks in rural areas, eye examinations are often an annual family outing. Optical shops must pay opticians who do eye exams salaries in excess of $150,000, and that’s just not profitable in towns like Beersheba Springs, Tenn., or Deweyville, Utah.
Apr 21
Four tenants open in Easton’s new urban district
Easton Town Center’s $500 million new urban district, where an RH Gallery and an Arhaus have already been doing business, opened four new tenants this week.
Apr 20
PREIT’s rent collections topped 100% in last two quarters
PREIT has reported collecting 119% of rents at its 19 regional and super-regional malls in the first quarter due to payments of current obligations, as well as some it had deferred during the 2020 shutdowns.
Apr 15
Kimco and Weingarten merge to create top grocery-anchored center company
Kimco and Weingarten, both important operators of grocery-anchored shopping centers in the United States, have merged to become No. 1 in that business with a combined portfolio of 559 properties.
Apr 14
Will emptied offices in major metros devalue retail space?
Last week, New York City released a report saying that the value of its forest of office towers had fallen by 25% in the past year.
Apr 12
CBL focuses on local tenants in its new mall campaign
Though scores of national brand retailers populate the 100-plus malls and outdoor centers CBL Properties operates in 24 states, the Chattanooga, Tenn.-based company likes to point out that some 1,300 of its tenants are locally owned businesses.
Apr 12
JLL sells outdoor center in what it calls a hot Dallas market
JLL Capital Markets announced that it had closed the sale of McKinney Marketplace in the town of the same name north of Dallas.
Apr 09
Report: Americans itching to get out and spend their $2 trillion in savings
One of the world’s largest commercial real estate services firms predicts herd immunity will be achieved by September, that the e-commerce/retail mix is stabilizing, and that Americans are dying to get out and spend their $2 trillion in excess savings.
Apr 08
Mall vacancy rate increases by a record margin
Mall vacancy rate in the United States rose from 10.5% in the fourth quarter of 2020 to 11.4% in the first quarter of 2021, according to Moody’s Analytics.
Apr 08
Regal Cinemas to re-open 500 locations this spring
After six months of closed theaters and an operating loss $2 billion, Regal Cinemas will be re-opening some 500 theaters beginning this month.
Apr 07
20 towns that could pick up high-roller residents leaving top metros
Chicago has long been known as The Second City due to its secondary status in the shadow of New York, but it’s one of the major metros that lost lots of high-income residents during the pandemic.
Apr 07
5Qs for Steve Backman on the paucity of fulfillment space
CBRE released a report a few weeks ago that should have caused a pause in the proceedings of national retailers expanding their omnichannel operations.
Apr 06
Amazon has converted as many as 25 malls into distribution centers
Amazon started buying up failed malls and turning them into warehouses and distribution centers long before the pandemic sent e-commerce purchasing sky-high.
Apr 01
Dickerson named marketing director of Butler Enterprises
John Dickerson, who spent the last three years managing the digital marketing efforts of the massive Butler Plaza center in Gainesville, Fla., has been promoted to director of marketing at Butler Enterprises.