CHICAGO—Even though many regions of the world wallow in the economic doldrums, the US continues to act as beacon, bringing in investors and new businesses, including those from the retail sector.

"We are seeing a surge of interest in the US from European retailers," James Cook, the Americas director of retail research for Chicago-based JLL, tells GlobeSt.com. "Even after a retailer has tapped all of the European markets, it is still under pressure to grow. And for cultural reasons it is easier for Europeans to make a leap across the pond to America than to open outlets in Asian markets."

The US also has six times more retail square feet per person that the UK, with 2,375 square feet per 100 inhabitants, according to Retailing U.S.A, a new report on the trend from JLL. That's more space than France, Denmark, Finland, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Germany combined, the researchers found, making the US an increasingly attractive locale for European retailers that have reached maturity in their home markets.

Historically, Europeans have used New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco "as their beachheads," Cook adds. But from these beachheads, retail empires sometimes grow. Sephora, a Paris-based cosmetics retailer, opened its first US store in New York around 1998, and has grown to about 350 outlets. Aldi, of course, is perhaps the best example of a European retailer sinking deep roots in the US market. The low-cost grocer first arrived in the 1970s and has become so commonplace that most Americans probably don't realize it began in Germany.

And many of these foreign companies have just the qualities that landlords find appealing, Cook says. "Landlords want good credit and strong corporate backing, and even though they are new to our nation, they are still considered national credit tenants."

Opening outlets in the US can be a challenge for Europeans, he adds. For one thing, European countries are quite dense, with just a handful of top markets, and choosing locations there tends to be rather simple. Therefore, they sometimes need a US partner that can help them master that skill.

In addition to solid credit, European retailers can bring in new concepts that can excite interest from shoppers and drive traffic.

"In the US, we have not seen a lot of new retail concepts lately, except maybe from grocers," and he expects more tried-and-true foreign concepts to begin appearring. Flying Tiger, a Danish design store, opened its first US outlet in Manhattan earlier this year. In some respects it's like a dollar store, except that its eclectic products usually cost around $8, and the store itself is designed like a labyrinth to encourage shoppers to roam around.

Primark, an Irish-based clothing retailer that helped popularize "fast fashion," a method of capturing the latest trends by quickly moving clothes from the catwalk to the for-sale rack, began spreading to much of Western Europe in 2006 and this year opened its first US stores, one in Boston and the other in King of Prussia, PA. "It provides deeply-discounted fashion that it sells at a very high volume," Cook says. "If you are a person with an interest in fashion, you will be familiar with the brand, and landlords know that this company is going to drive traffic."