Place

Churn

The National Real Estate Investor talks about Putting New Life Into Dead Spaces:

[T]here's an estimated 500 million sq. ft. of excess retail space nationwide, most of it second-generation space, according to Howard Makler, chairman and COO of Excess Space Disposition Inc. in Huntington Beach, Calif.

The glut is the result of not only retail bankruptcies, but also an ongoing pruning process among retail chains. For example, Toys “R” Us and Albertson's grocery chain, have regularly disposed of 10% to 20% of their worst-performing stores in order to boost earnings.

The churn is normal; what's unusual about the spaces being released is their size.

The stakes for these huge boxes coming onto the market are high, because there are only a handful of other retail users that will use that size space, says Mitchell Kahn, president of Hilco Real Estate LLC in Northbrook, Ill., one of the largest liquidation specialists. “Once you exhaust that supply, you don't have a lot of options,” he explains. “You may have to explore subdividing the space, or even turning it into an industrial building or residential apartments. The bigger the space, the greater the challenge of disposition.”

The challenge is one of imagination.

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categories: Place

Envy

Urstadt Biddle Properties, a real-estate investment trust, owns Somers Commons and Carmel Shop Rite Center near us, and Danbury Square and Airport Plaza in Danbury. They also own Ridgefield Center. The median income in Ridgefield is $50,000 more than Carmel. Notice how the wealthy get better-looking stores?

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categories: Place

Crossing Petitions

Jeff Green, of PlanPutnam, has started a petition against Patterson Crossing. Ann Fanizzi, of Open Spaces, had an op-ed on the subject.

What kind of retail do your customers want?

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categories: Place