Tweet It looks like retailers are not faring so well after all. From an article published today at DallasNews.com titled “Speakers at Retailing Summit in Dallas offer sobering assessment” (emphasis mine): Retailers shouldn’t expect to see the pre-recession shopper in this economic recovery, and a shakeout with store closings is still ahead, speakers said Thursday [...]
Tweet Blockbuster has secured $675 million in new debt (due in 2014) which will be used to pay off old debt. The loan is nice and cheap at an 11.75% interest rate and represents 94% of par value. Blockbuster is continuing its aggressive cost-cutting strategy in hopes that people will stop using the internet and [...]
Tweet For those of you who have been reading this blog lately you will know that the overpriced deal of the week was already announced on Tuesday. To call Moreno Beach Plaza overpriced would be like saying Fresh & Easy is underperforming. So in honor of this new and (potentially) recurring post, I present you [...]
Tweet I just read a post on the CRE blog Net Lease Nation talking about the upcoming holiday season. Apparently, Fitch Ratings is bullish on the retail sector: “Many companies across Fitch’s U.S. retail coverage have been managing inventory positions well. Gross margins have rebounded for those companies in the discretionary categories that were hit [...]
Tweet Below is an excerpt from an article posted today at About.com. There are two different groups of experts who agree with that position and are predicting that a second wave of economic fallout will impact the retail industry in the not too distant future. Audit Integrity, a Los Angeles research services company, released the [...]
Tweet Take a look at the image below. What do you think it is? (Answer below) Answer: A map of every McDonald’s in the United States. Judging by the lack of density in the western half (excluding California, Oregon and Washington) it looks like there may be some development opportunities in places like Colorado, Utah, [...]
Tweet Citigroup may be looking to sell or shut down some of its 1,001 retail bank branches in the U.S. and Canada. Citi wants to focus on their core markets of New York, Washington, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. DealBook has more here. Needless to say, this is not good news for capitalization [...]
Tweet The United States Postal Service is considering consolidation options in every major metropolitan market in the United States. The consolidations could lead to the closure of over 3,000 USPS locations. Clearly, this will have a major impact on the employment of a large number of postal workers. These abandoned post offices will also leave [...]
Tweet Press release from the NPD Group. Presented without comment. NPD Spring 2009 Restaurant Count Shows Units Down by 4,000 Chicago, July 27, 2009 – There are 4,000 fewer restaurants in the United States this spring than there were last spring, according to The NPD Group, a leading market research company. NPD’s Spring 2009 ReCount®, [...]
Tweet From Calculated Risk: “We’re dumbfounded. We’ve been working on this deal for four-and-a-half years. I don’t know how, all of a sudden, the numbers don’t work.” JMW Development Principal Mark Johnson From the Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal: SuperTarget planned for Woodbury now on hold. Target recently informed JMW that it would not [...]
Tweet Not much to say here. Microsoft could have some cool stuff to check out. Microsoft’s Surface is an item that should wow most customers. (HT – Traffic Court)
Tweet I don’t know what is more brutal, a 44% decline in effective rental rates or the fact that office rates ever reached $70 PSF in the first place. Calculated Risk has the post here which summarizes an article from Rueters. I love the analogy put forth by the guy CR calls Brian in which [...]
Tweet I’ve been meaning to mention this for a while now but I’m just getting around to posting today. Electric motorcycle startup company Brammo has signed a distribution deal with Best Buy. This is interesting because there are several companies trying to capitalize on the soon-to-be electric vehicle craze (see here for a list of [...]
Tweet Here is a list of retailers you may want to avoid having in your properties.
Tweet This guest post is written by Thomas Galvin of Colliers International. Thomas is a commercial real estate analyst for Colliers International with a regional focus on the Inland Empire. You can learn more at his commercial real estate economic blog www.inlandecon.blogspot.com. The lifeblood of retailers are consumers. The industry adage that “retail follows rooftops” [...]