Why Big Box Retail Hasn’t Fallen in South OC

Dennis Vaccaro

ValueRock Realty Partners is staying active in the Orange County retail market—despite some of the challenges. The firm recently purchased a Best Buy big box retail property for $9 million and signed a 71,000-square-foot lease with a design tenant in another property. The investor says the demand from big-box tenants in South Orange County is healthy, but that every property must have a tailored strategy for success.

“Demand for big box space in South Orange County is relatively strong. Obviously each space has its own unique characteristics; however, most South Orange County communities are master planned and for this reason have resisted previous opportunities to overbuild retail in order to generate greater sales tax revenues,” Dennis Vaccaro, SVP at ValueRock Realty Partners, tells GlobeSt.com. This has created a more stable retail environment overall. The press and media is bombarding us with news of retailers closing stores and/or going bankrupt and that brick and mortar retail is in trouble.  What we do not hear as much about are the retailers who are growing and expanding in this new environment. There is no question that the country as a whole has too much retail square footage.  That is not the case in south Orange County due to the valuable past planning and discipline of these master planned cities—that are also still adding new housing. It’s the familiar supply vs. demand formula.”