SAN FRANCISCO—As retail centers slowly reopen in the wake of COVID-19, there are many benefits that local and independent retailers can offer communities and retail mixes. Perhaps the most important consideration is that these retailers are a hedge against impacts beyond landlord control including chain store consolidation.
These chains were already having financial trouble and difficulty differentiating consumer offerings, now exacerbated by COVID-19, says David Greensfelder, managing principal, Greensfelder Commercial Real Estate. He says from a landlord perspective, there are several other benefits of having local/independent retailers and restaurants in a center.
"Landlords are in the business of creating and operating places, and retailers' reason to exist is driven by demand for the goods and services that they sell," Greensfelder tells GlobeSt.com. "In our world that is dominated by so many chains, one shopping venue can easily come to look like another."
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Lisa Brown
Lisa Brown is an editor for the south and west regions of GlobeSt.com. She has 25-plus years of real estate experience, with a regional PR role at Grubb & Ellis and a national communications position at MMI. Brown also spent 10 years as executive director at NAIOP San Francisco Bay Area chapter, where she led the organization to achieving its first national award honors and recognition on Capitol Hill. She has written extensively on commercial real estate topics and edited numerous pieces on the subject.
