Retail Follows Rooftops

PHOENIX—As population growth continues, new retail space is needed to meet demand from new residents. Currently, the southeast valley is the most active new home market in metro Phoenix.

Through the first half of 2016, the southeast Valley accounted for two-thirds of new retail product in the metro area according to a recent MarketFlash report by the CBRE Phoenix research team. With the area's population increasing significantly in recent years, it maintains a larger percentage of high-wage earners with higher median household incomes than the valley as a whole.

“This is definitely an instance of 'retail following the rooftops',” said CBRE's Todd Folger, first vice president specializing in retail. “The southeast Valley has seen more than 3,000 housing starts through June and just under 350,000 square feet of retail product brought online year-to-date.”

To give some additional perspective, Folger states that with the anticipated completion of two Fry's grocery-anchored centers and an EOS Fitness-anchored center by year-end, completed construction for 2016 in the southeast valley will surpass the previous six years combined.

“Looking at both recent retail completions and the product that is under construction for the remainder of 2016, you see a recurring theme which follows common logic. The first thing new and or growing communities need is grocery-anchored centers, and by the end of 2016 we will have seen the completion of two Sprouts-anchored centers as well as two Fry's anchored centers in the southeast valley,” Folger tells GlobeSt.com. “Also, as new homes are being built, it affords homebuyers the perfect time to invest in new home goods and furniture, and we've also seen the completion of a 104,000-square-foot new Living Spaces built in the San Tan Village area.”

PHOENIX—As population growth continues, new retail space is needed to meet demand from new residents. Currently, the southeast valley is the most active new home market in metro Phoenix.

Through the first half of 2016, the southeast Valley accounted for two-thirds of new retail product in the metro area according to a recent MarketFlash report by the CBRE Phoenix research team. With the area's population increasing significantly in recent years, it maintains a larger percentage of high-wage earners with higher median household incomes than the valley as a whole.

“This is definitely an instance of 'retail following the rooftops',” said CBRE's Todd Folger, first vice president specializing in retail. “The southeast Valley has seen more than 3,000 housing starts through June and just under 350,000 square feet of retail product brought online year-to-date.”

To give some additional perspective, Folger states that with the anticipated completion of two Fry's grocery-anchored centers and an EOS Fitness-anchored center by year-end, completed construction for 2016 in the southeast valley will surpass the previous six years combined.

“Looking at both recent retail completions and the product that is under construction for the remainder of 2016, you see a recurring theme which follows common logic. The first thing new and or growing communities need is grocery-anchored centers, and by the end of 2016 we will have seen the completion of two Sprouts-anchored centers as well as two Fry's anchored centers in the southeast valley,” Folger tells GlobeSt.com. “Also, as new homes are being built, it affords homebuyers the perfect time to invest in new home goods and furniture, and we've also seen the completion of a 104,000-square-foot new Living Spaces built in the San Tan Village area.”