COUNTY OF SAN BERNARDINO, CA—“Overall it has been a very positive conference,” Erik Westedt, VP of national retail agency and development at CBRE, tells GlobeSt.com about the ICSC Western Division Conference last week. While learning about the most significant retail trends in the market, we pulled Westedt aside to give us an inside look at the County of San Bernardino's expanding retail market. Here is what we found out:

GlobeSt.com: What are retailers, investors and developers looking for today when it comes to retail expansion?

Erik Westedt: I think the most important factor is the significant quantifiable traffic. That can be anything from cars on the road to foot traffic to people living or working in the area. Tenants need to be able to know who their potential customer is, and an investor or developer needs to be able to show that to a tenant. For this reason, you see a focus on denser and more urban markets.

GlobeSt.com: What are some of the strongest opportunities in the County of San Bernardino?

Westedt: In San Bernardino County, it is areas like Chino Hills and Rancho Cucamonga, but high-traffic intersections and shopping centers throughout the county are getting a lot of attention. Chino Hills and Rancho Cucamonga attract attention in large part because they are leading the charge in the new housing world. Right now, high-density housing is very popular and you are seeing a significant amount of that in both of those cities. However, there are also certain projects that are anchored by specific tenants, and that could be someone as large as Wal-Mart or Smart & Final, both of which are opening up stores throughout the county. It is very desirable for other retailers and restaurants to be located in close proximity to them, which has caused a significant amount of new retail growth over the last 12 to 18 months.

GlobeSt.com: What are some exciting retail projects in San Bernardino County?

Westedt: An example of a Wal-Mart-anchored retail center that recently opened and is generating a lot of traffic is at the intersection of highway 395 and Palmdale in Victorville. It is just amazing to see how much retail has flourished, has been  recently been built or is due to be built within the next few months right there at that intersection. If you look at a map, you'll see that there is some very limited housing next to it, so you wouldn't call that a dense market in any sense of the word, but because of the anchors, it has pulled a lot of people into that intersection, which is causing that traffic that tenants are looking for. For that reason, you are seeing tenants at that shopping center pay rents that we haven't seen in the market in half a decade. Another exciting project happening right now is the second phase of Citrus Plaza called Mountain Grove in Redlands, which is right where the 210 and the 10 freeways meet. Those tenants are seeing some of the strongest sales in the state at that center. So for this Mountain Grove project coming out of the ground, you are seeing tenants like Nordstrom Rack, Banana Republic and 24 Hour Fitness … all of which are doing new ground-up deals there.

GlobeSt.com: What do you think the retail landscape will look like over the next five years in the County of San Bernardino?

Westedt: I think future centers will be more focused on an entertainment environment. You can buy anything on the internet, but we still want to socialize and we still want to explore, so I think future retail is more in show space, a place where retailers can display their product and customers can get familiar with it. These are boxes of which we have seen a significant amount of growth over the last few years. I think the best example of where retail is heading in the county is Victoria Gardens, which is an environment where people want to be.