Here are some recent news and notes on retail and retail real estate.
Square Feet blog has a nice, simple post looking at the latest results from Moody’s commercial property price index. Prices fell 1.0 percent from May to June and are down about 27 percent from the year prior. The National Association of Realtors also put out some new commentary on commercial real estate. Rolfe Winkler summarized the findings.
A Wall Street Journal piece looked at the rally in REIT shares. REIT stocks have been on a major winning streak since about May.
The UPI provides the most recent doom and gloom report on commercial real estate. This one calls what we experienced a commercial real estate “bubble.” I actually don’t think we’ve seen that term thrown around too much. Was it a bubble or was it a boom? Was it a boom that turned into a bubble?
A Dow Jones story looked at how consolidation among big banks has led to a glut of bank branches, which is just adding more pressure to the retail real estate sector. This is a trend we looked at back in January.
Jim Cramer wrote a brief piece boosting commercial real estate. He’s had enough of the doom and gloom. He says the woes in the sector have been contained. This comes just more than two weeks after he made a similar argument on his show.
The Chicago Tribune has a nice story looking at how the Mall of America has fared during the recession. The fact that it is a tourist destination has helped it perform better than many other regional malls. It’s still drawing crowds and is eking out revenue gains despite the brutal retail environment. The mall’s entertainment destinations also seem to be performing decently.
The Mall is also trying some interesting things online, in tune with a story we posted earlier this week. Bridget Jewell, a PR coordinator for the property, hinted on her Twitter page about the mall’s new blog, which just went live today.
In connection with the blog, which offers fashion tips and will highlight clothes carried at the mall’s stores, the Mall has uploaded two videos as well.
Part 1
Part 2
Neat stuff. I like the creativity malls are employing to try and reach customers online. It will be interesting to see where this trend goes.
This Bloomberg report looks at how some retailers have taken advantage of conditions to expand aggressively in New York City. The New York Times had a similar report with more details. Both stories are based on this report from the Center for an Urban Future.
Despite the recession, the five largest chain stores in New York City expanded their presence in the five boroughs in the last year, according to a new report [pdf] released on Tuesday by the Center for an Urban Future, a research organization in Manhattan. Indeed, more than 30 percent of the 167 chains examined last year — the first year the survey was conducted — had expanded in the city as of Aug. 1 of this year.
Dunkin’ Donuts, which has more outlets in New York than any other business, has 88 more stores than it did a year ago (even accounting for the 12 that turned into Tim Hortons), bringing the total to 429. The other top retailers that have expanded are Subway, with 361 outlets, up from 335; McDonald’s, with 258, up from 248; Starbucks, also with 258 stores (an increase of 23 despite the closing of hundreds of stores nationwide); and Duane Reade, with 229, up from 216.
“We certainly expected more national chains shrinking and going out of business,” said Jonathan Bowles, the director of the center. “That’s the part of this that perplexes me the most.”
Here’s some welcome news. The American Institute of Architect’s Architecture Billings Index bounced back in July. The index rebounded more than 5 points last month to a reading of 43.1, reversing a similar decline in June, according to the American Institute of Architects. Reuters has more.
New Moody’s Data; Reaction to TALF (Thursday’s News & Notes)
by David Bodamer August 20th, 2009
Here are some recent news and notes on retail and retail real estate.
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