NEW YORK CITY-At the International Council of Shopping Centers’ New York conference Wednesday, the general consensus was that the picture for retail is much improved, though there are still challenges ahead.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who spoke to open the conference, told attendees that “the New York recession hit New York hard,” but that “by keeping our financial house in order and by continuing to improve and invest” in areas like quality of life, the city has thrived.
“New York City has had a far more robust recovery than the nation as a whole and regained two thirds of the jobs lost during the recession, while the rest of the nation has only regained about a third,” Bloomberg said. “Our commercial real estate market is the strongest in the nation and people are clearly confident about New York’s future.”
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Michael Kercheval, president and CEO of ICSC, said that “we’ve come back from the recession,” but cautioned that there was still room for improvement and that danger lurked in some areas.
For more on where the challenges will lie for retail in 2012, click on the Jones Lang LaSalle North America Year-End Retail Outlook.
“During the recession and after the recession our industry lost 1 million jobs in the United States,” he said. “How many have we gained back so far? Well the employment numbers came out last Friday and we’ve gained back 12,000 jobs out of 1 million jobs lost.” Also worrisome is ongoing battle over Internet sales taxes, which has left Mom and Pop retailers hurt by what Kercheval called an advantage that the cyber retailers have.
In fact, speaking at a lunchtime session, ICSC chairman David Henry—also the CEO of Kimco Realty Corp.—pointed to the Internet tax question as one of three major challenges that the industry faces. He called it “the number one issue for our association” and said that “we are at a tipping point,” after 18 years fighting the battle.
The second challenge that Henry noted was the ongoing reluctance of community banks to lend. “They have not been aggressively lending to the local Mom and Pop stores,” Henry said.
Lastly, Henry said that new store prototypes were significantly smaller—even among national retailers. This lack of large scale retail development has an effect on occupancy, even as certain segments—health clubs and restaurants—continue to grow “by leaps and bounds.”
The conference continues tomorrow at the Hilton New York and Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers. Check back for more coverage on GlobeSt.com.
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