Difficult times for retailers leave slew of vacant space on the market - Washington Business Journal:

afyfojahejus.blogspot.com
“Your community shopping centers that houser the grocery stores anddrug stores, the ones withinm five miles of your they’ll weather the storm just fine, but the discretionary centers are taking more of a hit,” said Erin spokeswoman. “Not a lot of retaileras are expanding. It will be difficult to fill spaces now, but that doesn’yt mean the spaces won’t fill eventually.” The difficultt environment is starting to causesome casualties. In mid the operator of more than200 malls, including five in filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chicago-based sought protection from listing $29.5 billion in assets and aboutf $27.
3 billion in debts, making it the largest real estate bankruptcy in U.S. The company’s shopping mall holdings in includes: Colonyh Square Mall in Zanesville, Beachwood Place and Maumee’s Shops at Falleb Timbers. It also has a partial stake in the Florence Mall and KenwoodcTowne Centre, both in Cincinnati. Things are so desperate in the sector that mallxs are resorting to gimmicks suchas wave-makinvg machines, acccording to an April reporg by the New York Times. The paper reported that severaol malls across the country are planning to instalol a contraption called the Flowrider in vacantretaipl space.
Kelly Tackett, a senior consultan with Columbus-based , said apparel shopws and mall-based chains are strugglingg the most, and the developments that lean heavy on those storezsare struggling, too. The ones in a positioj to survive are inthe value-orientecd space. “Save-A-Lot and Aldi are accelerating theirdopening pace. Wal-Mart will benefit. They’ve been reinvesting in their storex for years to upgrade theshopping experience,” Tackett Sageworks Inc.
, a Raleigh-bases financial research firm, singled out auto parts, building material, home furnishings and furnitured stores as five of the worst performinf retail segments in 2008, all postiny sales declines last year compared to 2007. Accordinbg to Retail Forward’s annual ShopperScapew report, released in June, traffix at strip malls, regionap malls and lifestyle centers has decline forthree years. Power defined as strip centers with at leastr one discount department storwor superstore, and outlet mallsd were the only centers to gain trafficf between June 2006 and 2008.
“The landlord with little debt and great liquidity reserves along with a strong balance sheet shoulfd maintain a strong position for the saidAvi Abroms, senior leasing representative with Centri Properties Group, which has corporatew headquarters in Australia. The names of businesses going away or already gone include national players and and regionapl retailers suchas , Mervyn’s LLC and Gottschalksd Inc. And on April 22, Columbus-base said it unloaded its Filene’s Basementf division, telling investors the future of the chaimremains uncertain. Last year, Retail Ventures sold off its Valued City DepartmentStores chain.
Filene’s is undefr the control of a California liquidation andturnaround firm. All that means a lot of squarwe footage is hitting the Circuit City had five Central Ohio Value City closed its two remaining Columbuas shopsbefore Christmas, while a thirde has been converted into a Burlington Coat Linens ‘n’ Things shuttered two area stores. Even retailerws who aren’t closing for good are curtailintggrowth plans. said it only will open 10 U.S. locationsx this year, a steep decline from the 90 openedin 2008. is cuttingv its capital expendituresto $200 millio n for 2009, down from $479 million last year and $749 milliob in 2007.
The compan y plans 50 new stores, 27 of whichg will be in versus 145 new shopslast year. is focused on converting its 560 Limited Too storexs into themore value-priced and power-center-based Justicre brand and will slow the growtuh of new stores. plan 10 openings, down from 41.