Geraldine Fabrikant/ The New York Times – It’s hard to conceive of a city that needs a new shopping mall in a country overpopulated with shopping sprawl. Yet about 10 years ago, the Taubman Centers, the national mall developer, teamed up with the Benderson Development Company, a real estate firm with headquarters in Sarasota, to build […]
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Hoffman, Green Realize Strength in Unity
Keith Loria / Commercial Property Executive – Hoffman Strategy Group and Jeff Green Partners have formed a collaboration to expand both companies’ work on complex, mixed-use feasibility research including retail, residential, office and hotel uses. “As a national recognized leader in retail real estate feasibility, I bring significant experience in everything from shopping center development and repositioning […]
Apple Watch debut falls flat in Sarasota
Justine Griffin / Herald-Tribune – The hype around the pre-order date for Apple’s newest gizmo — a smartwatch — seemed to fall a little flat compared to the technology company’s many other celebrated releases.
During my stint as a retail reporter, I’ve covered quite a few Apple product releases. I’ve gotten up before the sun to talk to people (sometimes more than 100 of them) in line at malls across the state, waiting to be one of the first inside an Apple Store to take home the newest version of the iPhone or the iPad.
I’ve clapped and cheered alongside sleep-deprived Apple Store employees — dressed in the traditional blue T-shirt with the white Apple logo, jeans and Chuck Taylor shoes — while they counted down the seconds before the store opened.
People really, really love their iPhones and iPads.
The familiar queue line snaked around outside the Apple Store in the Mall at University Town Center on Friday, but it was empty by the time I arrived. A lonely Starbucks employee, manning a cart with free coffee, bottles of water, fruit and trail mix, stood at the front of it.
“Want a free coffee?” he asked before I entered the half-filled store.
I was told that only 20 people had showed up to wait in line before the store opened. I’m not sure if I should be surprised.
This was the first product release for the Apple Store in Southwest Florida. But Apple fans couldn’t take home a watch on Friday. They could only hold it, play with it, and pre-order it. The watch will be available for purchase on April 24.
“I think this one is going to take a while for people to get behind,” retail analyst Jeff Green said. “It’s unique, even for Apple. So it will take people some time to adopt than most other Apple products.”
Inside the store, which honestly didn’t look any busier than it does on a Saturday afternoon, about a dozen people hovered around the table with samples of the coveted Apple Watch.
Employees opened hidden drawers with nearly a dozen watches in each. Customers tried them on.
“It’s kind of small,” said one man, who held his wrist with the watch close to his face.
Others were curious about what you can do with it. Read text messages. Track work outs. Tell time. Who knew?
DRA to Seek Proposals for Main St. Tower
Liviu Oltean / Commercial Property Executive – The Downtown Redevelopment Authority (DRA) of Houston has issued a request for qualifications for the acquisition, clearing and development of a 35,579-square-foot site at 1111 Main St. The RFQ calls for the development of a multifamily project and/or a mid- or high-rise hotel tower with an extensive retail component.
Younan Properties Inc., owner of the neighboring 19-story office tower at 1010 Lamar St., entered into a memorandum of understanding with the DRA to lease two or three levels in the tower. Those levels will be converted to retail space and will connect to the retail component of the future tower. Younan will also provide 587 parking spaces.
DRA stipulated an extensive retail component for the project on the basis of a 2014 study by Jeff Green Partners, which showed that there is tremendous retail potential in the Downtown Houston market. Responses to the RFQ are due May 26th and execution of an agreement has been slated for February 15, 2016.
“Retail in the Downtown Houston area would serve a base of 33,492 employees within a quarter-mile radius, growing to 176,636 within one-half mile and 215,185 within a one-mile radius of the Downtown Shopping District,” the RFQ states. “Using the average expenditures per worker reported by the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) in their March 2012 report Office Retail Spending in a Digital Age(,) total (current-year) retail sales potential generated by the daytime employment base is projected to be $957 million.”
Aldi to reopen shuttered Bottom Dollar stores in Lehigh Valley
Robert L. Gentieu / The Morning Star – Aldi Inc. will open three new stores in the Lehigh Valley region at shuttered Bottom Dollar locations and sell or lease seven others, the company announced Friday.
The company said it has finalized the purchase of 66 Bottom Dollar assets from the Belgium-based Delhaize Group, including land and buildings associated with the retired discount grocery chain.
In November, Delhaize said it would sell its Bottom Dollar stores to Aldi for about $15 million as part of its plan to withdraw from the discount retail food segment in the United States. At the time, Delhaize employed about 2,200 people at Bottom Dollar stores, which were introduced in the Lehigh Valley in 2010 and closed late last year and early this year.
Aldi, of Batavia, Ill., said Friday it will open a total of 30 new Aldi stores at former Bottom Dollar locations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. In the Lehigh Valley region, Aldi will open stores at the following Bottom Dollar locations:
• 1856 Catasauqua Road, Hanover Township, Lehigh County
• 4034 Jandy Blvd., Lower Nazareth Township
• 703 Route 113, Hilltown Township, near Souderton
The chain will sell, sublease or designate for assignment the following Bottom Dollar stores in the region:
• 3235 Hamilton Blvd., South Whitehall Township
• 2919 Lehigh St., Allentown
• 719 Stefko Blvd., Bethlehem
• 2431 Butler St., Wilson
• 1529 Broadway, Fountain Hill
• 371 W. Broad St., Quakertown
• 1167 MacArthur Road, Whitehall Township
Another company or entity may take over the leases of stores that are designated for assignment, Aldi spokeswoman Julie Ketay said.
Aldi, which operates nearly 1,400 stores in 32 states, said it plans to open 650 new stores by the end of 2018 and expects to create more than 10,000 jobs at its stores, warehouses and division offices as part of the expansion plans.
Associates working at least 25 hours per week receive full health benefits and all employees may participate in the company’s 401(k) plan, Aldi CEO Jason Hart said in a news release.
“With the completion of this real estate transaction, we are able to ramp up our expansion plans in the region to meet the growing demand for [Aldi’s products],” Hart said. “While we are excited to pursue opening Aldi stores at 30 of these locations, we will continue working with those communities where we will not be using the sites to ensure a smooth transition.”
The chain employs a low-overhead approach that depends on volume purchasing, inexpensive real estate and cheap prices to deliver savings to its customers.
It’s a strategy that is not without risk in today’s fragmented food-shopping environment, said retail analyst Jeff Green of Phoenix-based Jeff Green Partners. Customers are looking for value, selection and quality — but not always in the same store, he said.
“The conundrum faced here is: The way we shop for groceries is a lot more different than the way we did it even five years ago,” Green said. “It used to be just a supermarket. Now people go to Trader Joe’s, then they go to Whole Foods. … Even farmers markets can cut into the traditional shopping experience.”
Green said he is cautiously optimistic about Aldi’s nationwide expansion plans at a time when discount competitors such as BJ’s Warehouse Club, Sam’s Club, Costco and Walmart also are growing.
With the economy plodding along toward improvement, and cheaper gasoline prices putting more money in consumers’ pockets, Aldi’s growth plan can be viable, he said.
“[Aldi] has been successful, but there’s a lot of pressure,” Green said. “It’s a weird industry.”
The shopping mall is dying? Not in Florida.
Justine Griffen / Herald-Tribune – When it opened in Sarasota County in October, the Mall at University Town Center was unique not just in Florida but nationally: the only enclosed mall to debut in the United States during 2014.
But with the economy rebounding strongly from the Great Recession — and even in the face of rapidly growing competition from the Internet challenging traditional malls — at least some players are thinking there are still opportunities to be had in that retail arena.
Some are thinking big in Florida — very big.
Triple Five, the international developer behind the Mall of America, has unveiled what it hopes will become a $4 billion mega center and amusement park in Miami.
The aptly named “American Dream” would be a 200-acre shopping center with attached carnival rides that would blend two of the state’s strongest economic sectors: retail and tourism along the Florida Turnpike and Interstate 75 near Miami Lakes.
The mall — purportedly to feature sea lions, submarines and a ski slope — would be larger than the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, which is 4.2 million square feet with 520 stores and 50 restaurants.
American Dream could continue the Sunshine State’s run of proposing and building enclosed shopping centers at a time when malls and retailers are shuttering their stores in them faster than ever across the country.
But could even Miami sustain such a retail bonanza?
“Miami’s economy has changed dramatically over the years,” said Barry Seidel, owner of American Property Group in Sarasota. “There’s so much money coming in from people visiting from South America and elsewhere. The value of real estate in that area is huge.”
Britt Bemmer, CEO of America’s Research Group Ltd., agreed: “The concept coming to Miami will be successful. Entertainment is a key component in shopping centers now. They have become family destinations.”
The retail industry in Florida also has seemingly bounced back from the Great Recession faster than other states because of the state’s rising employment, a rebounding housing market, strong tourism and investment spending and robust population growth, which we can thank the steady influx of retirees for, Charles Taylor, the International Council of Shopping Center’s Florida state director, told “Shopping Centers Today.”
Triple Five, the international developer behind the proposed Miami mall, declined to comment.
