ATLANTA—In the last few years, as consumer confidence hasreturned, investors' interest in the nation's retail sector hasgrown considerably, and this outlook was apparent at the recentICSC conference in Atlanta.
“I found the conference very bullish and upbeat,” KrisCooper, a managing director in the JLL CapitalMarkets Group, tells GlobeSt.com. The conference was heldfrom October 28 to the 30th. “There is still plenty ofcapital available, both debt and equity, and a lot of people werevery optimistic.”
“We keep filling up vacancies and rental rates also keep goingup,” he says. But like many other experts, Cooper points out thatall of this visible strength has yet to translate into asignificant amount of new development. Some builders have takenadvantage of the pent-up demand for new product by constructing alimited number of grocery-anchored centers, as well as some big-boxretail, but primarily in top markets where both they and lendersfeel especially confident. “A lot of those developers got burnedduring the recession,” Cooper says.
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
