What Will the Retail Landscape Look Like in Five Years?

Michael O’Neill, a senior director at Cushman & Wakefield in New York City.

In the latest issue of Real Estate Forum , we caught up with high-level individuals from across the country to discuss the state of the retail market and how Cushman & Wakefield’s retail group is deploying a future-forward approach . In the below discussion, we asked one simple question to those individuals: GlobeSt.com: Five years from today, what will the retail landscape in your market look like? Michael O’Neill, senior director in New York City: The well-established markets that are synonymous with the New York retail landscape—like Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, Times Square, Herald Square, and SoHo—will continue to attract demand as they have a long history of success and often represent global branding opportunities. The most material shift I anticipate in the retail landscape is on the West Side.  Related’s development of Hudson Yards will add an entirely new shopping destination. The project’s scale is unparalleled and its impact on the surrounding area will be profound. Danny Jacobson, senior director in Chicago: Five years from today I believe the Chicago retail market will be stronger and more geographically expanded than it is today. Submarkets such as the Gold Coast, the Southport corridor in Lakeview, and the Damen Avenue corridor in Bucktown have seen retailers locating further north, south, east, or west of what had been considered the center of each of these markets. There’s a critical mass of retailers assisting in the expansion of these submarkets:  as more retailers seek to enter these areas and capture the customer base, space becomes limited and retailers are stretching the market with new deals. I also think the Fulton Market District will be much more established in the future as the hotels, office buildings, residential buildings and retail sites that are currently under construction are stabilized. Greg Masin, senior director in Miami: In Miami, we’ll see more street retail below verticality in predominantly residential areas. Matthew Fainchtein, senior director, and Carter Magnin, associate, both in Los Angeles: The retail landscape in L.A. in five years will be vastly improved due to the competitive nature of the market as well as the influence of online retailing. As traditional retailers fight to maintain relevance in an ever-changing digital marketplace, the consumer will ultimately benefit by getting a much better product and experience. We also anticipate consolidation within the mature brands (i.e department stores and other mid- to large format retailers). With that said, there will always be a strong demand here for new brands to make inroads and in some cases pioneer new retail neighborhoods like Culver City, the Arts District, and downtown Los Angeles.