"For certain category-specific retail sectors, the scale of the reduction in selling space has greatly exceeded the reduction in consumer demand," the report states. "This imbalance suggests that a sustained increase in consumer demand will provide retailers with a unique opportunity to absorb vacant space in high productivity locations at terms unthinkable during the recent boom years."

As an example, the report cites the consumer electronics category, which until recently was dominated by just two chains that accounted for nearly 50% of sales: Best Buy and the now-defunct Circuit City. The bankruptcy and then liquidation of the latter left 22 million square feet of retail space vacant--nearly one-fifth the 130 million square feet of big-box space that has gone dark since the recession began, according to C&W.

However, while the electronics/appliance sector's gross leaseable area declined by 10.1% in 2008, retail sales in this category dipped by only 0.3% during the same time period. "The drastically reduced supply of electronics store GLA is now below what consumer demand would indicate," the report states.