From left: Macerich CEO Art Coppola and Roosevelt Field mall on Long Island

In perhaps the latest sign that retail malls are going the way of the dinosaur, industry executives said a prediction that 10 percent of all U.S. malls would be gone in the next decade was too conservative, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Earlier this year, real estate research firm Green Street Advisors said it believed about 100 of the nation’s 1,000 large enclosed malls would be torn down or converted for another use (note: clarification appended). At the International Council of Shopping Centers, industry executives told the Journal that prediction was probably too low. [more]

Source: Cassidy Turley

For the first time since the economic downturn, the U.S. retail real estate sector is showing substantial signs of improvement, according to a report released today by Cassidy Turley. In the first quarter of this year, 3.1 million square feet of U.S. retail space was absorbed. [more]

Rolex store at 665 Fifth Avenue, a prime retail area

Average asking rents in some New York City retail corridors have shot up by as much as 75 percent year-over-year, according to a market report released today by the Real Estate Board of New York. But overall asking rents for ground-floor retail space in Manhattan are down slightly from last year at this time. [more]

A range of blocks along Columbus Avenue has reached 100 percent retail occupancy, the New York Post reported. Three new leases have brought the 188 storefronts between 67th and 82nd streets to full occupancy, the Post said. [more]

The Upper West Side’s Community Board 7 voted 37 to 0, with some abstentions, to limit the size of storefronts in the neighborhood last night, Crain’s reported.

The rezoning will apply to Columbus Avenue between 72nd and 87th streets, and Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway, between 72nd and 110th streets. New retail leases will be limited to 40 feet of frontage and banks will be limited to 25 feet of frontage. [more]

700 Atlantic Avenue

Real estate investment firm Waterbridge Capital has completed its purchase of a 105-year-old Brooklyn industrial facility at 700 Atlantic Avenue for $7 million, the Wall Street Journal reported, close the site of the new Barclays Center sports arena.

The company may be planning to transform the building into a retail center, sources told the Journal, in an effort to capitalize on the rapid evolution of the area leading up to the opening of the arena. [more]

Higher than anticipated sales on Black Friday have mall owners hoping that the coming holiday season will cure some of the persistent retail vacancy, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Last week’s Black Friday sales totaled $52.2 billion, a record, according to research from the National Retail Federation. Meanwhile in the third quarter malls overall had a 9.4 percent vacancy rate — the highest since numbers began being recorded — according to Reis, a real estate analytics firm.

While mall operators do not rely hugely on holiday sales, the period is a useful bellwether for retail tenants and landlords about what outlets are ready to expand and when and if rents can go up, according to Jay Leupp, a portfolio manager at Lazard Asset Management, an investment manager for institutional clients.

“It’s a better sign and predictor of what retail tenant renewal and expansion activity is going to be going forward, particularly if retail sales are meaningfully stronger than expected,” Leupp said. [more]

Source: Center for an Urban Future

The uncertain economy may be finally catching up with chain stores in New York City, according to a study released today by the Center of an Urban Future. For the first time in the four-year history of the center’s annual study, the growth of chain stores in the city has slowed.

The number of national retail stores grew by 1.6 percent over the past year, as the 307 retailers included in last year’s ranking expanded to 6,994 stores in 2011 from a total of 6,883 stores in 2010, the study shows. But a 1.6 percent increase is far below the 4 percent rate of growth in chain stores between 2009 and 2010. — Katherine Clarke [more]

From left: Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn at the announcement (source: Mayor’s Office)

This morning, the city announced an initiative to amp up efforts to promote small businesses and neighborhood retail corridors, through extensive marketing support and training programs. The city’s program, Building Blocks for Neighborhood Retail, will aid commercial areas in their efforts to market vacant space to potential tenants, providing them with demographic and market data profiles of their communities. The program is supposed to continue the successes the city says it has already seen in its efforts to attract new businesses to specially designated “commercial corridors”: in fiscal year 2011, 99 new businesses opened in commercial districts that were targeted by the Department of Small Business Services to attract new retailers. – Jane C. Timm [more]

Retail leasing activity may be up on Madison and Fifth avenues, Retail Traffic reported, with more chains signing deals, but it hasn’t been all good news for retail.
At the end of July, the national Luxury Consumption Index, tracked by Pennsylavia-based Unity Marketing, fell 16.8 points to 66.0 points, registering the biggest drop since the beginning of the recession, as affluent consumers registered the fluctuation in the stock market and began to spend less on luxury goods.
“Our surveys tend to be a little ahead of what’s going on with luxury companies and what we saw in the middle of the year was a sharp and steep decline in the confidence level of luxury consumers,” said Pam Danziger, president of Unity. [more]