GlobeSt.com is providing wall-to-wall coverage of ICSC's RECon show in Las Vegas May 19-22. Retail Ticket will provide coverage of the event through the end of May, featuring pre-event articles, live video interviews on site and post-conference analysis. Contact Scott Thompson at [email protected] about how your firm can participate.
DJM Realty, A Gordon Brothers Group Co. (RECon booth S289) is partnering with GlobeSt.com around the month of the convention. We recently spoke with Neill Kelly, president of the firm, which specializes in real estate dispositions and other services. He spoke with us about his expectations for the conference, what retailers are expanding and how he feels the retail real estate industry is holding up.
GlobeSt.com: What do you think the mood at RECon will be like compared to last year?
Neill Kelly: This show comes once a year and it's always a great opportunity for us to interface with a lot of people that we don't see as much as we would like. Our team has a pretty full plate of meetings which is always a good sign. The mood of the attendees will be on par with what the mood has been in the past. After attending the Vegas ICSC for nearly 20 years, I have always found that the attendees are almost always duty bound to be glass-half-full optimists. As a result, even when times are slow, there is always the anticipation that with every May, when the Spring Convention comes, there are new opportunities and maybe a turn in the business cycle that will start the transactional volume bumping up again.
GlobeSt.com: Do you think attendance will be up?
Kelly: I would imagine it will be up, if not just marginally.
GlobeSt.com: Are there any sectors of retail that are doing well as far as expansion goes?
Kelly: The dollar-store guys are on fire. It's an opportunistic mentality. The time is right for them. They're seeing entry into markets that maybe they couldn't have underwritten before. As a result, many of them corporately view there to be a somewhat limited window where they can drive the economics of the lease. One thing we have heard from a number of them is the desire to do transactions in a bulk fashion. They are less interested in doing the one-or-two-off deals and more interested in transactions where they can pick up a basket of stores in one shot and do so with favorable economic terms.
GlobeSt.com: So do you think the overall economic climate is better than it has been?
Kelly: If you're looking at the pace of expansion of retailers between 10,000 square feet and 50,000 square feet, I'd be surprised if anyone was to say that it was picking up to any great degree. There is very little change in that size. We are seeing more activity in the smaller boxes, restaurants in particular are looking better.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
