Optimism Running High, ICSC Las Vegas Opens Its Doors
GlobeSt.com is in Las Vegas to celebrate the big ICSC Las Vegas event where sources we spoke with say that US consumers are still in spending mode for consumables.
LAS VEGAS—Welcome to ICSC Las Vegas! GlobeSt.com is in attendance along with many others, who exclusively tell us that optimism is in the air. Optimism in the industry remains high. US consumers are still in spend mode for consumables due to lack of; affordable homes, automobiles, international travel all of which are big ticket items, Naveen Jaggi, JLL president of retail advisory services, tells GlobeSt.com. This will continue to feed retailers with optimism in the near term, he says.
“Current transaction activity is ahead of the same 2021 but the combination of high inflation compounded with Recession talk against the backdrop of Eastern Europe war could impact behavior of consumers and retailers,” Jaggi adds.
Regarding ICSC specifically, for Joshua Poag, president and CEO of Poag Shopping Centers, there is a lot of pent-up demand for meetings since it has been three years since a May ICSC meeting. “Some meetings are about connecting with longtime friends, and others are about new deals ranging from leasing and acquisitions to financing,” he tells GlobeSt.com.
Poag always goes into the ICSC show focusing on specific meetings, but always leaves with a good feel for the trends that are happening in the industry, he says. “There are always nuggets of interest that pop up stemming from an isolated question or turn into a recurring trend when that same topic pops up multiple times,” he explains.
Poag hopes to walk away this year with an idea for where the industry is heading and how it will continue to change.
We also caught up with Mark Sigal, CEO of Datex Property Solutions, who said that his first ICSC in Las Vegas was in 1990. He explains that 30 years ago is a long time given the monumental changes to the retail landscape, including the rise of Amazon, and most recently, the COVID Pandemic.
“In that time, retailer concepts have come and gone. Just in frozen yogurt, I can think of 20-30 operators I have seen at past shows,” he tells GlobeSt.com, adding that “You would think we would have cracked the code on frozen yogurt, but we haven’t.”
Towards that end, he explains that ICSC is one of many bellwethers of what the new normal looks like, as COVID becomes more endemic. Case in point, he says that his company did the December show, which was much smaller. “It will be interesting to see what the exhibit hall footprint feels like this go around. Historically, ICSC Vegas has covered three halls – North, South, Central, whereas I believe December was just one hall.”
For Sigal, ICSC has always been a working event, as his companies have always been focused on working with the retail portfolio owners, first in property management and leasing, earlier in his career. More recently, he says, it’s been with those same portfolio owners who he says turn to the Datex platform to run their businesses. “In that regard, ICSC is an opportunity to meet with existing clients and prospective ones, and generally take a pulse of the industry at large.”
Keep checking back with GlobeSt.com for more coverage from the event this week and check out the below related stories we have already covered.
Retail Professional Talks Production Costs, Supply-Chain Issues Ahead of ICSC
ICSC Participants Gear Up for Reconnecting, Intel Gathering
Experts Talk ICSC Las Vegas, Talk Brick-And-Mortar Evolution