The New York Times reported on a rebound in shopping centers, where, for the first time in 20 years, demand for retail space was outstripping supply. Writer Joe Gose cited a Cushman and Wakefield report putting shopping center vacancy at 5.4 percent, the lowest in two decades, and described how surviving centers had shifted toward restaurants, entertainment, fitness and medical tenants after years of limited construction and the removal of weaker properties.
To meet that demand, the article said, developers were seeking distressed and failed properties, as well as sites where retail would be a better fit than the existing use. The Times pointed to The Cliff as an example: Partners Capital was converting a 100,000-square-foot office complex near Las Vegas into a $30 million project with restaurants, boutiques, health and wellness operators, entertainment space and a central bar. Bobby Khorshidi, the firm's president, said this was a change from a few years earlier, when Partners Capital was selling much of its retail portfolio and moving into industrial buildings. The paper called the move an apt representation of how the fortunes of office properties and shopping centers had switched places.
The rest of the piece covered other repositionings, including projects by Vestar, Trademark Property Company, Shopoff Realty Investments and NewMark Merrill, along with risks such as squeezed consumer spending, higher interest rates and rising construction and insurance costs.