Al Urbanski

Real Estate Editor & Manager

Author Profile

Al Urbanski is the real estate editor of Chain Store Age. He has covered CSA’s retail real estate beat since he joined the brand in 2016.

Al is a veteran of the retail and and consumer products marketing industry, with more than 30 years of reporting experience. Over the course of his career, he served as the chief editor for a variety of publications, including Sales & Marketing Management, Food & Beverage Marketing, Promo and others.

Al is a graduate of Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Connect with Al on LinkedIn.

ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR

10/11/2021
Major mall owner introduces a digital short-term leasing program
One of the biggest victims of COVID-19 was the 10-year lease, long a standard at enclosed malls.

Al Urbanski
10/11/2021
Chicago Magnificent Mile development signs Museum of Ice Cream
The Shops at Tribune Tower has snagged a real sweet tenant.

Al Urbanski
10/6/2021
Last-mile Amazon deliveries blocked by New Jersey town
PetSmart, Ulta, and DSW all left Deptford Crossing shopping center in Deptford Township, N.J., leaving the center just two-thirds occupied.

Al Urbanski
10/4/2021
LA Fitness replaces Best Buy at Long Beach center
LA Fitness’s chief of real estate Bill Horner notes that convenient access to large, active populations is the key to the chain’s location strategy, and that’s certainly the case with its newly announced location at Marina Pacifica Shopping center on the Pacific Coast Highway overlooking Alamitos Bay.

Al Urbanski
10/4/2021
104,000-sq.-ft. entertainment center to fill J.C. Penney space at Willow Grove
PREIT’s cross-portfolio plan to fill departed anchor space with modern uses like medical centers and restaurant rows takes a different direction at its Willow Grove Park mall north of Philadelphia, which for 80 years was the site of an amusement park.

Al Urbanski
10/3/2021
JLL closes $37.5 million sale of California center, says big-box retail is strong
A private family trust that developed Marketplace Beaumont in the Inland Empire east of Los Angeles in 2008 has sold it for $37.5 million in a marketplace in which investors are paying top dollar for viable retail centers in strong markets.

Al Urbanski
9/30/2021
Fans flock to Westfield Centers to hear Lady Gaga debut 'Love for Sale'
Lady Gaga fans filled 20 Westfield Centers across the globe yesterday to watch her open a live performance singing Luck Be a Lady backed by a five-piece jazz band.

Al Urbanski
9/29/2021
JLL: Consumer spending growth in 2021 will be highest since WWII
Net absorption of retail real estate—actual move-ins—will total 20 million sq. ft. in the second quarter according to JLL’s “Retail Outlook” for the remainder of 2021.

Al Urbanski
9/28/2021
Spurned by the owner, an Illinois town attempts to redevelop its million-sq.-ft mall property
Bloomingdale, Illinois’ Stratford Square Mall has a vacancy rate of 69%. Its owner is doing little to reverse it, so village officials have stepped in to help reinvigorate the 1.3 million-sq.-ft. property.

Al Urbanski
9/28/2021
For restructuring awards, make it three for A&G
A&G Real Estate Partners has been honored a third time for its part in the restructuring of Tuesday Morning and GNC, this time with a Turnaround Award from M&A Advisors.

Al Urbanski