Difficult times for retailers leave slew of vacant space on the market - Washington Business Journal:

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“Your community shopping centers that house the grocer y stores anddrug stores, the ones within five miles of your they’ll weather the storm just fine, but the discretionary centers are taking more of a said Erin Hershkowitz, spokeswoman. “Not a lot of retailersz are expanding. It will be difficult to fill spacesz now, but that doesn’t mean the spaces won’t fill The difficult environment is starting to caussome casualties. In mid April, the operator of more than 200 including fivein Ohio, filed for Chapte 11 bankruptcy protection. Chicago-based sought protectioj from creditors, listing $29.5 billionh in assets and about $27.
3 billion in making it the larges real estate bankruptcyin U.S. history. The company’s shopping mall holdings in includes: Colony Square Mall in Zanesville, Beachwoor Place and Maumee’s Shops at Fallejn Timbers. It also has a partial stake in the Florence Mall and KenwoodsTowne Centre, both in Cincinnati. Things are so desperatwe in the sector that malls are resorting to gimmick s suchas wave-making machines, acccording to an April report by the New York The paper reported that several malls across the country are planninbg to install a contraption called the Flowrider in vacant retail space.
Kelly Tackett, a senior consultant with Columbus-based , said apparel shops and mall-basede chains are struggling the most, and the developmentx that lean heavy on those storesare too. The ones in a positioj to survive are inthe value-oriented “Save-A-Lot and Aldi are accelerating their opening pace. Wal-Martf will benefit. They’ve been reinvesting in their storezs for years to upgrade theshopping experience,” Tackettf said. Sageworks Inc.
, a Raleigh-based financialp research firm, singled out apparel, auto parts, buildiny material, home furnishings and furniture stores as five of the worst performing retail segmentsin 2008, all postiny sales declines last year compared to 2007. Accordintg to Retail Forward’s annual ShopperScape releasedin June, traffic at strilp malls, regional malls and lifestyle centers has declinef for three years. Power centers, defined as stripl centers with at least one discount department store or and outlet malls were the only centers to gain traffivc between June 2006and 2008.
“Thed landlord with little debt and greagt liquidity reserves along with a strong balance sheegt should maintain a strong position forthe future,” said Avi senior leasing representative with Centrol Properties Group, which has corporate headquarterw in Australia. The names of businesses goinb away or already gone includw national players and and regional retailer suchas , Mervyn’s LLC and Gottschalks Inc. And on April 22, Columbus-based said it unloaded its Filene’s Basement division, telling investors the futurde of the chainremains uncertain.
Last year, Retail Ventures sold off its Valure City DepartmentStores Filene’s is under the control of a Californias liquidation and turnaround firm. All that mean a lot of square footage is hittinggthe market. Circuit City had five Central Ohio Value City closed its two remainingt Columbus shopsbefore Christmas, while a third has been converted into a Burlington Coat Linens ‘n’ Things shuttered two area Even retailers who aren’t closing for good are curtailing growthu plans. said it only will open 10 U.S. locationws this year, a steep decline from the 90 openedin 2008.
is cuttinhg its capital expendituresto $200 million for down from $479 million last year and $749 million in 2007. The companyt plans 50 new stores, 27 of whichb will be in Canada, versus 145 new shops last is focused on converting its 560 Limiteds Too stores into themore value-priced and power-center-based Justice brandr and will slow the growth of new stores. plans 10 down from 41.