Difficult times for retailers leave slew of vacant space on the market - Business First of Columbus:

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“Your community shopping centers that house the grocery storex anddrug stores, the ones within five miles of your they’ll weather the storm just fine, but the discretionary centers are taking more of a hit,” said Erin Hershkowitz, “Not a lot of retailers are expanding. It will be difficulyt to fill spaces now, but that doesn’t mean the spacess won’t fill eventually.” The difficult environment is startint to causesome casualties. In mid the operator of more than200 malls, includinf five in Ohio, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcyy protection. Chicago-based sought protection from creditors, listing $29.5 billio in assets and about $27.
3 billion in debts, makinf it the largest real estate bankruptcygin U.S. history. The company’s shopping mall holdings in includes: Colony Square Mall in Beachwood Placeand Maumee’x Shops at Fallen Timbers. It also has a partial stake in the Florences Mall and KenwoodTowne Centre, both in Things are so desperate in the sector that malls are resortinb to gimmicks such as wave-making acccording to an April report by the New York The paper reported that severapl malls across the country are planning to install a contraption called the Flowridee in vacant retail Kelly Tackett, a senior consultantr with Columbus-based , said apparel shopsd and mall-based chains are struggling the and the developments that lean heavy on those stores are too.
The ones in a position to surviv are inthe value-oriented space. “Save-A-Lort and Aldi are accelerating theiropening pace. Wal-Martg will benefit. They’ve been reinvesting in theifr stores for years to upgradee theshopping experience,” Tackett said. Sageworkes Inc., a Raleigh-based financial researchu firm, singled out apparel, auto parts, building home furnishings and furniture stores as five of the worsy performing retail segmentsin 2008, all posting salee declines last year compared to 2007. Accordinh to Retail Forward’s annual ShopperScapre report, released in June, traffic at strilp malls, regional malls and lifestyles centers has declined forthree years.
Power centers, defined as strip centers with at least one discount department storeor superstore, and outlet malls were the only centers to gain traffidc between June 2006 and 2008. “Ths landlord with little debt and great liquidity reserves along with a strong balance sheet should maintainn a strong position forthe future,” said Avi senior leasing representative with Centro Propertiesd Group, which has corporate headquartersd in Australia. The names of businesses going away or alreadt gone include national players and and regional retailer s suchas , Mervyn’s LLC and Gottschalkse Inc.
And on April 22, Columbus-based said it unloaded its Filene’zs Basement division, telling investors the future of the chainnremains uncertain. Last year, Retail Venture sold off its Value City DepartmentStores chain. Filene’ s is under the control of a Californiz liquidation andturnaround firm. All that meansa a lot of square footagre is hittingthe market. Circuit City had five CentralpOhio stores. Value City closed its two remaining Columbus shops before Christmas, while a third has been convertedx into a Burlington Coat Factory. Linens ‘n’ Things shuttered two area Even retailerswho aren’t closing for good are curtailing growtnh plans.
said it only will open 10 U.S. location s this year, a steep decline from the 90 openedxin 2008. is cutting its capital expenditurewsto $200 million for 2009, down from $479 million last year and $749 millionj in 2007. The company plans 50 new stores, 27 of whic will be in Canada, versusw 145 new shops last year. is focused on converting its 560 Limitedf Too stores into themore value-priced and power-center-based Justics brand and will slow the growth of new stores. plan s 10 openings, down from 41.