News and Events
Retailers Expected to Close Fewer Stores in 2010
Improved store opening activity in 2010 expected to moderately buffer closure activity.
Mar 3, 2010 CoStar Group Sasha Pardy
Add store closings to the list of categories where 'less bad' has become the 'new good.
The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) issued its latest semi-annual report on store closings and found that the huge wave of store closures many had anticipated in 2009 did not occur.
To get a gauge of what the retail real estate community is anticipating in terms of the amount of store closure announcements expected to come from major retailers in 2010, CoStar conducted a reader poll of its Retail News Roundup subscriber list. The poll question was, "What are you expecting we'll see in terms of the number of store closure announcements from major retailers in 2010 as compared to 2009?," and respondents were invited to answer, "significantly more" store closure announcements, "moderately more," "about the same," "moderately less," or "significantly less.”
Ivan Friedman, president and CEO of RCS Real Estate Advisors, which serves as a real estate consultant and disposition firm for several national and regional retailers, explained why he expects moderately less store closure announcements from major retailers this year.
"In the last two years, companies have purged and cleansed themselves of a lot of stores, and we’ve also purged and cleansed ourselves of a lot of companies, such as Linens 'n Things and Circuit City, for example."