Insalaco, who has been a broker in Denver after cutting his teeth in New York City with the late billionaire Harry Helmsley and others, recently addressed a National Industrial and Office Parks meeting and elaborated on his outlook over lunch with GlobeSt.com.
"I predict that retail development will lead office and industrial development statewide for the next five years," he says. He notes that the most sought after commercial asset in the Denver area is a grocery-anchored retail center.
"They are the closest thing a commercial property to being bullet proof," Insalaco says. "Particularly in these trying times."
He notes that Denver's retail sales in December were the second-highest ever recorded and retail sales in 2001 increased 5.2% from 2000. All of the spending is helping the economy from sinking into a deeper recession, he adds.
Although some national retailers have become less active than in the past year, "slipping into a cautionary wait-and-see mode- they are not diving into fox holes," he adds.
The overall retail vacancy rate peaked at 8% last year and at the end of the second quarter fell slightly to 7.9% and remains stable, he says.
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