Edward Hogan, national director of retail leasing at Brookfield Office Properties, speaking at an ICSC panel yesterday

Brick-and-mortar stores have been under direct pressure for years from web-based competitors like Amazon. Now it’s the landlord who is wrestling with competition from the web.

New in-store price-comparison smart-phone applications — which allow customers to compare prices and buy products as they walk the aisles of stores like Home Depot and Walmart — are forcing both tenants and landlords to adapt, real estate executives speaking at a panel Monday at the International Council of Shopping Centers’ RECon, in Las Vegas, said. [more]

From left: Chase Welles, a partner with SCG Retail, and David Birnbrey, chairman of the Shopping Center Group, at a party Sunday; Holly Cohen, senior vice president of real estate planning at J.Crew, and Glenn Rufrano, CEO of Cushman & Wakefield, at a panel on Sunday; and Prudential Douglas Elliman's Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of retail leasing and sales, at a panel on Sunday.

The International Council of Shopping Centers’ annual global retail convention, RECon, held in Las Vegas each May, kicked off Sunday with several speeches by headliners such as author Malcolm Gladwell. In addition, thousands of attendees visited the business services booths and a dozen special interest group panels, including several with New York brokers and executives. The main landlord and broker floors are set to open today. [more]

From left: Wharton Properties' Jeff Sutton, Thor Equities' Joe Sitt, Cushman's Joanne Podell and Newmark's Jeffrey Roseman

The city’s top retail landlords and brokers are making final tweaks to their appointment schedule and ironing out which parties and dinners they will attend, just two days before the official start of the world’s largest retail trade show, the International Council of Shopping Centers’ RECon in Las Vegas. The conference website shows major real estate players plan to attend, such as Jeff Sutton, president of Wharton Properties; Joseph Sitt, CEO of Thor Equities; Michael Fascitelli, CEO of Vornado Realty Trust; and Glenn Rufrano, CEO of Cushman & Wakefield. [more]

Clockwise from upper left: Daniel Shallit, director of Northeast development at the Sports Authority, Dennis Bachman, a senior real estate representative for Wakefern Food, Bronx Terminal Market, Larry Rose, a principal with advisory firm RK Realty Advisors, Patrick Smith, vice president of real estate for BJ’s Wholesale Club, Michael Shanahan, vice president of real estate at Burlington Coat Factory, and developer Ken Narva

Developers have built too much parking garage space in some of the city’s newest mall developments including the Gateway Center at the Bronx Terminal Market, according to real estate professionals speaking at a panel this morning at the International Council of Shopping Centers New York convention.

Parking floors are sitting mostly empty in some projects even as the overall mall might do well, the retail owners and brokers said.

“What that really tells you going forward is that there is a case to be made that you don’t necessarily need as much parking if it is just urban vertical retail,” said Larry Rose, a principal with advisory firm RK Realty Advisors.
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From left: Bradley Mendelson, executive vice president of Cushman & Wakefield; Jeff Blau, president of Related Companies; Amira Yunis, executive vice president of Newmark and Jason Pruger, Executive Managing Director at Newmark

New York retail brokers and principals are making late appointments and boarding flights over the next few days in preparation to attend the world’s largest retail real estate show in Las Vegas.

Most of the city’s real estate professionals who focus on leasing and sales of store spaces will be at the International Council of Shopping Centers global convention known as RECon, from Sunday to next Wednesday, at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The attendee list is a Who’s Who of New York City retail, from landlords like Vornado Realty Trust, Crown Retail Services and Forest City Enterprises to brokerages like Cushman & Wakefield, CB Richard Ellis and Northwest Atlantic. [more]

The Palisades Center

From the January issue: The frenzy of the holiday shopping season is winding down, but malls across the region don’t expect a holiday hangover.

Mall leasing was up 38 percent in 2010 nationally, and rents were about 14 percent higher, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. Sales jumped 7 percent in September from the prior year.

The ICSC estimates that the 1,200 indoor malls nationwide generate an average of close to $400 per square foot in sales volume, and brokers say the number in the New York tri-state area at high-end malls is more like $800 a square foot. And some even have waiting lists of stores looking to take space. [more]

From left: The 56th Street facade of the schools, the entrance to the High School of Art and Design, the P.S. 59 entry plaza (credit: Hiromi Oikawa, Marena Studios)

The World-Wide Group and the city cut the ribbon earlier this morning on a $500 million, 900,000-square-foot mixed-use development in Midtown after a major budget cut, and [more]

From left: The 56th Street facade of the schools, the entrance to the High School of Art and Design, the P.S. 59 entry plaza (credit: Hiromi Oikawa, Marena Studios)

The World-Wide Group and the city cut the ribbon earlier this morning on a $500 million, 900,000-square-foot mixed-use development in Midtown after a major budget cut, and [more]