"Retail is doing real well in this market in general," Marilynn Glasscock, with Dominion Realty Advisory Group Inc., tells GlobeSt.com. She presented the retail outlook at a recent real estate gathering in San Antonio.

Rents citywide average $11.05 per sf, up 26 cents from 2000. It's the first time rent topped $11 per sf. The citywide vacancy rate is 15% and absorption has been down this year. "That was mainly because of losing Montgomery Ward's, Bealls and Weiner's and some of the big department stores," she says. "We've got some big retailers coming in such as Lowe's and Costco, but they're stand-alone and they don't count against absorption."

The market has about 30.5 million sf in retail space, having added about one million sf since mid-2000, Glasscock says. Another four million sf is planned or under construction, much of it following housing development.