by Elaine Misonzhnik November 22nd, 2011
It’s taken more than 10 years, but it looks like a comprehensive, detailed plan for new retail at the World Trade Center site has finally been established. The Architect’s Newspaper reports that three separate hubs, including an existing one at World Financial Center, would combine to form about 635,000 sq. ft. of retail space downtown.
The hubs, including 70,000 sq. ft. of retail at the Fulton Street Transit Station, 365,000 sq. ft. at the new World Trade Center and 200,000 sq. ft. at World Financial Center, will be connected by underground tunnels and pedestrian passageways.
Back in its heyday, the 400,000-sq.-ft. mall underneath the original World Trade Center was among the most profitable in the country. A press release from the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey outlines conditions at the mall in February 2001. At the time, the Port Authority expected sales at the complex to reach $900 per sq. ft. before the end of the year. With the residential renaissance that has taken place in the area in the decade since the terrorist attacks, the new retail hub is likely to be even more successful.
Related Topics: Development, News, Retail, Retail Real Estate |
by Elaine Misonzhnik October 26th, 2011
Regional mall operator Taubman Co. is getting ready to start work on at least one new mall, according to the Detroit Free Press.
During a third quarter earnings call with analysts, company officials said Taubman entered the predevelopment stage on a project in San Juan, Puerto Rico and was also forging ahead on malls in Hawaii and Salt Lake City, Utah. (The Salt Lake City project has been announced for some time).
This jibes with what Taubman chief operating officer William S. Taubman told Retail Traffic back in May, when he said there might be room in U.S. for up to 20 new malls.
“There is growth in this country, we will be adding millions of people over the next 40 years and they are going to need somewhere to shop.”
Related Topics: Development, News, REITs, Retail Real Estate, Trends |
by Elaine Misonzhnik June 28th, 2011
That most men hate malls, and shopping in general, is a well-known maxim in the retail industry. Anecdotal evidence would point to the fact that men often consider going into a store a sort of punishment and statistical evidence says one in five men would rather do their taxes than go shopping. As a result, most malls in the U.S. still cater to women, in spite of some barely successful tries over the years to lure in men with promises of beer and cookies.
A bold European developer, however, is attempting to challenge the wisdom that men simply won’t enjoy shopping by building a mall that caters exclusively to the male population. The upcoming Panska Pasaz in Prague, buing built by Metroslav, will be tenanted by high-end men’s stores, especially those that specialize in tailored suits. There will also be a wine market on site.
Here’s the property’s Facebook page. It’s in Czech, but you can see the renderings and some of the posted press releases seem to be in English.
U.S. mall developers have been thinking up ways in recent years to make their properties more relevant to a wider range of consumers. It will be interesting to see how successful the Panska Pasaz experiment turns out to be. If it finally hits on the formula of how to get men into a mall, it might be worth replicating here.
Related Topics: Development, International, Management & Leasing, News, Quirky, Retail, Retail Real Estate |
REIT Week Takeaways
by David Bodamer June 8th, 2011
It’s been a whirlwind couple of days. Altogether, I sat in on 18 retail REIT presentations at NAREIT’s REIT Week. (During a few of the time blocks multiple retail REITs were reporting, so there were some I could not get to.)
The major themes were similar to those coming out of ICSC’s RECon a couple of weeks ago.
When it comes to leasing, retailers of all types are much more aggressive than they have been since before Lehman Brothers imploded. Occupancy rates tend to be higher for both regional mall REITS and shopping center REITs at their large spaces. There are still gaps to fill when it comes to inline tenants. In part, that is stemming from the fact that mom & pop type retailers are still having a hard time lining up financing. Smaller banks remain troubled. So while Wall Street is lending–which is helping the largest retailers, who have ample lines of credit to fund expansion–the traditional sources of financing for small businesses are still not available.
However, many retailers are also rethinking store sizes and shrinking concepts. In many cases retail REITs seem to be welcoming this development. If they can recapture all or part of a big box that’s paying below market rents, it gives them a chance to improve cash flows by finding a replacement or subdividing the space.
On the investment sales side, I heard a few different references to there being an “ocean of capital” that’s now chasing retail assets. The competition is most fierce for class-A product. But with a limited supply of that on the market, investors are slowly moving their way down the value chain. The fact that banks, insurance companies and CMBS lenders are also increasing their tolerance for risk will help to fund deals for class-B and class-C product. The competition is such that many retail REITs don’t think they’ll be able to acquire that much. Many will end up being net sellers since they’re finding it’s an ideal time to sell non-core assets. Only a few of the REITs that reported seem to be aggressively looking to expand through acquisitions.
When it comes to development, just about the only ground-up development anyone seems excited about is the outlet center space. The figure going around the show was that there is room to build 100 outlet centers in the U.S. So a lot of firms–even those with no track record in outlets–are taking a hard look at how to get in on the business. Much more prevalent was talk of redevelopment and expansion. REIT managers by-and-large agreed that redeveloping or expanding existing properties was the best way to increase NOI and organic growth, given current market conditions.
I’ll expand on these thoughts in an analysis piece that I’ll post tomorrow morning.
In the meantime, here are links to all the live blogs we posted from REIT Week.
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