NEW YORK CITY—It's a mix of good news and bad news for retail landlords in a new report from Fung Global Retail & Technology. Year to date, announced store closings are up 97% over the year-ago period. On the other hand, announced store openings are up 20% from the year-ago period.

“The industry is in the middle of a major disruption, but there are bright spots, including Bonobos' commitment to physical retail,” says Deborah Weinswig, managing director at Fung Global, referring to the recent announcement that the apparel company planned to open 20 Guideshop showrooms by the end of this year. “As we've seen, some retailers are continuing to expand, even as store closures are up markedly from 2016.”

In fact, while planned closings may outnumber planned openings, the totals for the latter are still considerable. Fung Global's report tallies 3,296 locations that are slated to go dark sometime in calendar 2017, noting that most retailers that have been closing stores fall within the department store and specialty retail categories. Primary reasons for the closures, according to the report: 1) declining mall traffic; 2) reconfiguration of store networks as retailers shift online; and 3) to cut losses from unprofitable stores.

Meanwhile, 2,573 locations nationwide are slated to flip the lights on this year. Value-driven concepts such as Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Aldi and TJX have announced major expansion plans. In particular, Dollar Tree plans to launch 650 new locations during 2017. As noted in a separate Fung Global report, German grocer Lidl is scheduled to open its first three stores in the US this summer.

“Value-driven concepts such as discount and fast fashion have been aggressive in expanding their store footprint, despite the difficult retail environment,” Weinswig observes. “Categories such as beauty and athleisure are outperforming the market, which is evident in their footprint expansion over the past 15 months.”

Instant Insights /

Store Closings and Openings Both Rise Y-O-Y

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