Luxury brands are on the hunt for retail spaces in prime corridors and Class A malls, leasing over 360,000 SF in the period from July 2023 to July 2024. That means big business for CRE.

JLL's 2024 luxury report found that almost half of the new U.S. luxury stores (48.5%) opened in malls, while 41% preferred select street locations. Because luxury brands want to be where their clientele is, the streets they preferred were overwhelmingly (68%) prime corridors. Store sizes ranged from the modest to the very large. Some 40% leased were between 0-2,000 SF, 19.4% leased (2,001-3,000 SF), 8.3% leased (3,001-4,000 SF), 11% leased (4,001-5,000 SF), 14% leased (5,001-10,000 SF), and 7% leased (more than 10,000 SF).

"Moving forward, growth in the luxury retail category will normalize as the U.S. navigates this period of economic uncertainty, with luxury retail sales expected to see a compounded annual growth rate of 1.9% from 2024 to 2028, surpassing $82 billion by the end of 2028," JLL predicted. U.S. luxury retail sales in 2024 are expected to total $77.3 billion in 2024 – even though the U.S. share of the world market fell 4% in 2023 from 2022.