Bob Young of Weitzman presented the firm's 2020 outlook at a recent forecast event.

DALLAS—Weitzman recently shared the results of its DFW retail market survey and forecast, covering key metrics such as occupancy, construction and net leasing. Just as importantly, Bob Young, Weitzman's executive managing director, explained the why behind the numbers.

To start, here are five lessons Weitzman learned in 2019:

1. The strong occupancy is not a fluke with the DFW market now in its seventh year of near-record occupancy.
2. This is the most geographically balanced retail market in DFW's history. Nearly all of the submarkets are healthy.
3. The low construction market is here to stay for the foreseeable future. While DFW leads the country in job growth, population growth and major corporate relocations, low construction will remain.
4. Restaurants are the most valuable player of retail leasing. Weitzman has 4,700 restaurants in its center database and that number keeps growing. Following closely behind are fitness, health and beauty, medical and services.
5. The convergence of physical and digital retail is paying off.

"In Frisco, for example, we worked with a steak and ramen restaurant struggling to attract business in a saturated market," Young says. "Using targeted digital tactics, including search and social, we saw the restaurant's sales rise 50% in just seven months."

For its methodology, Weitzman professionals surveyed every DFW shopping center of 25,000 square feet and greater. As of year-end 2019, that meant 1,427 shopping centers totaling 200.5 million square feet. This is the first time DFW reached the 200-million-square-foot mark. The retail market ended 2019 with its highest occupancy in 38 years at 93%; 1981's occupancy was 94.8%.