Retailers opt for urban street-fronts to diversify
22 Oct '07
3 min read
Though the majority of retail stores will continue to be located in malls, retailers are slowly moving back to Main Street to diversify their storefronts, according to findings from the 2007 NRF Retail Real Estate study conducted by AMR Research.
The study, which surveyed 43 retail real estate executives, found that retailers plan to have eleven percent of their stores in urban street-front locations by the end of year, compared with eight percent last year.
To compensate, companies have cut back slightly on their number of mall and strip mall locations (44% this year vs. 48% last year).
The survey also found that retailers are continuing to move toward lifestyle centers, with nine percent of company stores in that format compared with eight percent last year.
“Urban storefronts are beginning to play an increasingly important role in retailers' real estate strategies,” said Carleen Kohut, NRF Chief Financial Officer and the manager of NRF's Real Estate Executives Council.
“Throughout the country, traditional main streets are being revitalized to include an assortment of new retail shops, from department and clothing stores to coffee shops.”
When determining the best location for a store, four out of five retail real estate executives say that demographic information is the most important.
Half of respondents believe that other crucial factors include evaluating competitive information (51%), traffic patterns (49%), and geographic factors like the existing and future population (49%).
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