LOS ANGELES-David Sorenson, VP associate director of retail agency leasing for Jones Lang LaSalle, declares “the Los Angeles retail market is healthy,” during a JLL-produced commercial real estate video series that included three interviews from Southern California retail market experts.

“It is certainly the best that I have seen since 2008 when the floor fell out of the market,” says Sorenson. “Tenants are out looking for projects and certainly development in the area has picked up, so it is certainly the best I have seen in about four years.”

Although much of the retail market growth stems from new tenant projects, Sorenson asserts that new development is the driving force behind the market's stability. “Number one, development activity has picked up around the city and around the county and in California in general,” says Sorenson. “From a tenant standpoint, the healthy sign is not only do you see retailers expanding their current formats or their current brands, but they are out looking for other possibilities to create additional concepts that they can expand.” Sorenson offers Gap Inc.'s recent acquisition of clothing brand Intermix as an example of retailers expanding their brand and, therefore, helping drive the retail market. Gap Inc. fueled the retail market similarly in 2008 with the acquisition of Athleta, which led them to expand their retail space to compete with athletic clothing brand Lululemon Athletica.

The market has been growing across most of the retail sectors, with substantial activity in the restaurant and big- and small-box retail outlets. However, there have been areas where growth has been slow. “The one area that has been the slowest to recover is the boutique retail or the small one-off retailers. But other than that, all of the other categories are very active right now,” notes Sorenson.

Both tenants and landlords can benefit from the market stability, providing they “strike while the iron is hot to get the best and most creative deal for [their] property or [their] tenant,” Sorenson says. “Speed is probably the most important thing from both a landlord and a tenant standpoint.”

For extended commentary on the retail market, watch the full video series on JLL's website, and read the GlobeSt.com stories on JLL's office and industrial video series.

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Kelsi Maree Borland

Kelsi Maree Borland is a freelance journalist and magazine writer based in Los Angeles, California. For more than 5 years, she has extensively reported on the commercial real estate industry, covering major deals across all commercial asset classes, investment strategy and capital markets trends, market commentary, economic trends and new technologies disrupting and revolutionizing the industry. Her work appears daily on GlobeSt.com and regularly in Real Estate Forum Magazine. As a magazine writer, she covers lifestyle and travel trends. Her work has appeared in Angeleno, Los Angeles Magazine, Travel and Leisure and more.

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