TAMPA,FL-According to a new study just released by CB Richard Ellis, 70% of retailers in the US believe that the overall economy is improving and 92% are planning to increase store openings.

In most of Florida, says David Conn, executive vice president in the retail services division at CBRE in Tampa, many deep value retailers, such as Family General, Dollar Tree, Big lots, Aldi’s, and TJMaxx have expanded aggressively during the recession, while others stopped expanding. The deep discounters could do this, because they work on low margins and can’t pay high rents, he says.

Today, things are changing. "There is a cautious optimism among retailers," says Conn. Most are looking a couple years down the road, he says. "They’ve cut costs to the bone, so the only way to increase their bottom lines is to expand. If retailers see a good opportunity and the rent’s right, they will take it," says Conn. "Rents have come down, on average, 30%," he says. Of course, the retailers which are just surviving can’t take advantage of the situation, says Conn.

Target may be a good example of a retailer poised to expand, says Conn. Recently, most of Target’s capital budget has gone into remodeling existing stores, he says. The chain has embraced the P-Fresh concept, which is an expansion of grocery items at the standard Target store, while not to the level of a Super Target. Because P-Fresh involves remodeling of existing stores, rather than building new ones, it costs less.

While Target hasn’t as yet begun to build new stores, the company is starting to plan for them in the future, says Conn. "That doesn’t mean Target will go crazy, but mentally, it is looking for opportunities, although not as aggressively as a couple of years ago," he says.

Walgreen already has a huge presence in Florida, so the company is not expected to do a massive expansion when the economy gets better, but it may build a few stores, says Conn.

On the investment side, says Lori Schneider, vice president at Marcus & Millichap in Fort Lauderdale, prices for retail properties are getting better than they have been in the last two and a half years. As a result, "more multi-tenant properties will be brought to market that weren’t before, although debt isn’t readily flowing," she says. One of the reasons that there will be more sales, says Schneider, is that there is equity, coming from private individuals and private equity firms, which is ready to be placed and it needs to go somewhere.

When it comes to single tenant properties, those which lingered on the market are now being sold, because there is no new development, says Schneider. "We have to reach deeper into (the inventory of retail properties) to sell today," she says. After single tenant properties sell, then multi-tenant properties which weren’t on the market before, because they couldn’t get a fair and reasonable price" will sell, says Schneider. "The very small strip centers on major arteries sold throughout the recession, but now more sizable deals are being marketed and we believe they will sell for good prices," she says.

One of the big advantages to selling now, says Schneider, "is that we’ve eliminated the gap in buyer and seller expectations." If there was a high-rent center, tenants asked for rent reductions, she says. "Now, we’ve already lost tenants and replaced them, so the guess work is eliminated for the buyer and the seller," she says. The situation has changed a great deal in the last two and a half years, says Schneider.

Most of the transactions Schneider has done during the recession have involved a CVS or a Walgreen store. "Investment grade tenants have been the bulk of the sales. Before the recession, there was less scrutiny on credit. You assumed that chains would remain in business, but now, the difference between investment grade and non-investment grade tenants is night and day. When it is credit deal, the buyer doesn’t care about the location, she says.

"There is a cautious optimism among retailers," says Conn. "Most are looking a couple years down the road," he says. "