MIAMI—With the Florida ICSC show this week, we've taken a look at retail from various angles. On Monday, we looked at the "Amazon Effect" on retail. On Tuesday, we discussed the biggest game changers in retail.
Now, we've caught up with Paco Diaz, senior vice president of CBRE South Florida. He told GlobeSt.com, among other things, that he expects to see reatil site plans out on the tables for the first time in four or five years—new development—at least in South Florida.
“The biggest game changer is that the jobs are back and consumers are spending,” Diaz says. “Retailers are looking again for new locations and development is on its way, although it's probably going to be smaller and more dense than in years past.”
Diaz predicts we'll see more mixed-use, vertical-type development take place—Brickell CityCentre and SLS Tower in Miami are good examples—because people are moving back to the urban core and retailers want to be where the people are. But what about the biggest impact on retail in the near future?
“The retailers that prosper will be the ones that have a 360-degree connection between physical stores—bricks and mortar—and digital,” Diaz says. “The ones that can't give that experience are going to lag behind. You're going to see restaurants expand, fueled by franchisee investments. And there is a power shift moving to the landlords as demand increases and there is less space available.”
© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to asset-and-logo-licensing@alm.com. For more inforrmation visit Asset & Logo Licensing.