Mass Merchant

By Ike Boruchow, analyst, Sterne Agee, New York

This year, Black Friday gave us a taste of what to expect for the remainder of the holiday selling season: intense competition, deep discounts, and choppy mall traffic. Earlier store openings drove heavy traffic, which dissipated and then bounced through the day.

Location: 8801 Queens Blvd., Forest Hills, N.Y.

Size: 445,000 sq. ft.

Developer: Forest City Ratner Cos.

Major tenants: Target, Best Buy, Macy’s Furniture, DSW, Skechers, Outback Steakhouse, Red Lobster

Status: Opened in 2001

Location: Thornwood, N.Y., in Westchester County    

Size: 20,175 sq. ft. 

Developer: DLC Management Corp.    

Major tenants: Walgreens    

Status: Complete    

Optimizing retail store portfolios and optimizing shopping center portfolios seem like two different things. In fact, the two tasks have similarities.

“To retailers, optimization is getting store deployment across the marketplace right,” explained Mike Makinen, COO with MPI, Mall Properties Inc., New York City. “We have a similar strategy. We have a mix of retailers within our shopping center portfolio, and we try to optimize the assortment of retailers, restaurants and service tenants within each center.”

New York -- Hispanic adults are more frequently visiting retailer websites than the average online population, according to Experian Marketing Services.

During a 24-week period, from June 2013 through November 2013, Hispanics' market share of visits to Experian Marketing Services' Hitwise Retail 500 Websites was 21% higher on average than the online population. Further, the analysis found that this market share widened in October 2013 and continued to increase through November.

West Palm Beach, Fla. -- U.S. online retail sales will reach $508 billion by 2020, representing a market share of nearly 14% (or 17%, if food retailing is excluded), compared to expected online sales of $260 billion in 2013. According to a new report from FTI Consulting, this represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 11% from 2012 through 2020.

Developers in the Northeast are renovating, redeveloping and raising rents

What are retail shopping center developers up to in the vibrant northeastern region of the United States?

All across the Northeast — in which we include Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and the traditional northeastern states to the north — developers are renovating, redeveloping, raising rents, welcoming tenants and starting to get back to normal.

Location: Moorestown, N.J.

Size: 1,001,000 sq. ft.

Developer: PREIT

Major tenants: Lord & Taylor, Marc Vetri’s Osteria, Jose Garces’ Distrito, Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, Regal Premium Experience Theater, Rizzieri Salon & Spa, Francesca’s Collection (in lease negotiations) and a number of best-of-breed regional retailers

Status: Redevelopment to be completed in 2014