I just got back from the ICSC Florida Conference 2015 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando.
For the uninitiated, that’s the annual Florida pow-wow of the International Council of Shopping Centers, the world’s largest retail trade group.
This was the 30th year that I’ve attended – yes, the 30th – and as always it was a great time.
A lot of the senior principals in the retail business were there, and it was a great opportunity for us to catch up and compare notes.
So what’s changed in the retail industry? Here are some things I learned:
– There was a big difference in the conference this year. I’ve noticed that a lot of my friends in the business aren’t attending anymore. The crowd is definitely getting younger.
– Publix isn’t building as many stores now. The big dog is Walmart. They’re building all kinds of things. We know, because at Aztec Group we’re the Walmart experts. We buy them. We sell them. We give them financing. We give them preferred equity.
– Retail is hot, if it’s done right. But some of these retail centers are going to lose tenants to the Internet. What to do with the coming retail vacancies? I say townhomes. Those are some great locations for residential projects. Medical office, too.
– Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties are still under-retailed, but fewer mom-and-pop shops will fill the gap. They’re being forced off of main street and onto side streets.
– That said, local retail tenants with a strong local following will still do well if they have good service and a good product.
– Placemaking is still a theme. A good example is Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, which has gone from the mom-and-pop antique shops to locally driven retail. And now it’s changing again, with national retailers taking an interest.
– There’s a lot of capital out there having trouble finding good deals. The retail markets outside of Florida are pretty soft.
Those are the high points. Click here to listen to everything I learned from the ICSC Florida Conference 2015.
