By Richard Deaver
Let’s face it; there is a lot of uncertainty in our economy right now. Unprecedented layoffs, business closures, foreclosures and both personal and business bankruptcies have made everyone fearful of what the future holds.
But this is not news to anyone.
Commercial real estate has not been left unscathed by all the economic carnage – especially retail. On a national level, retailers closed an estimated 6,000 stores in 2008 alone with more than double that amount anticipated by the end of 2009. Locally, we’ve seen a number of storefronts go dark, both large and small. Gottschalk’s closure had the potential to severely exacerbate the situation, but since they had premium locations, there was plenty of demand to minimize the impact of adding to the vacant inventory.
The blow from jobs lost by the closure of Gottschalks was also lessened when Macy’s hired a number of former employees for the River Park store and Forever 21 should be adding soon to that number at the Fashion Fair location, but those who have not found jobs potentially can increase the number of new foreclosures and personal bankruptcies still to come. This will only add to the drop in retail sales forcing more local businesses to close, thereby causing vacancy rates to climb continuing a vicious cycle.
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