ICSC EXCLUSIVE: Center Developers See Upswing

"Retail market sales have been showing a marked improvement in the last few months, especially in March, which is not necessarily a high-volume month," Peterson tells GlobeSt.com. "So the industry is coming into this convention with a lot of momentum."

The convention itself actually has three components--the educational sessions, a trade expo and the Leasing Mall, which Peterson manages. Made up of developers, retailers, brokers, financial institutions and others on the transaction side of the business, the 1.3-million-sf, 850-company Leasing Mall is sold out, as usual, and "has a wait list of 60 companies," she says. "It has been sold out since last November."

"We are bullish," says Bob Rubenkonig, director of communications for the Rouse Co., Columbia, MD, one of the largest exhibitors in the Leasing Mall. (Simon Property Group has the most space, about 20,000 sf.) "The occupancy rate across our shopping center portfolio is 93%, the highest in the country.

"We have repositioned our shopping center portfolio, shooting for $450 to $500 per sf in sales across the portfolio," Rubenkonig tells GlobeSt.com. "Our retail properties had a stunning first quarter--sales per sf were up 9-10%, reaching $429 for the portfolio."

ICSC surveys indicate that some 25% of all shopping center leases are signed or conceived during the four-day annual convention, and Michael Stevens, EVP of the Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises, confirms that "retail leasing is very, very active here. We have 20 leasing people here, out of a total of 85 people we bring to this event.

"We use the convention primarily to introduce our newest developments, including a number under the banner of our new Forest City Ratner Group, which is based in New York," Stevens continues. "We also use it to strengthen our relationships with our financial partners, and to meet new ones. We have also been meeting with city officials as we have expanded our public/private partnerships."

Indeed, the ranks of the public sector exhibitor ranks have grown dramatically, Peterson confirms. "We have 43 cities and states this year, and the growth is an off-shoot of our Alliance program to encourage public/private partnerships," she explains. "They have their own section in the Leasing Mall."

For Rouse, however, "the show is more about presence than doing real business," according to Rubenkonig, "because our leasing is account-based. We do, however, have 1,300 appointments out here, so it's an opportunity to reconnect and further our relationships.

"There are so many key people gathered at one time that you can never discount the importance of this event to our company," he says.Stevens offers one caveat about the dealmaking activity here. While confirming that recent sales increases are "encouraging," he says that tenants "continue to be very selective in committing to new projects."

One other problem, according to Stevens: "The lack of new retail entities. Because of consolidations, inactivity by some, and other reasons, there are not a lot of new ideas. We're hoping we might find some here."

In any case, this country generated more than $3.7 trillion in retail sales last year, and just under $2 trillion of that, or almost 53%, occurred in shopping centers, according to ICSC figures. So whatever happens here through Wednesday, when the event concludes, could indeed be a barometer for the rest of the year and beyond."People have been very positive coming into this meeting, and most are booked up with appointments," Peterson concludes.