Malls Face ‘A Necessary Evolution’
September 8, 2017 | Paul Bubny | GlobeSt.com
“Converting malls’ tenant bases to include more of the categories that in-person shoppers now favor won’t be an easy or quick fix,” Cordero says.
The retailer categories occupying the most space in US shopping malls? Department stores and apparel, accessory and shoe stores, which combined take up about 78% of the gross leasable area at most centers. The retailer categories that have generally lagged in sales growth at these malls over the past five years? The same.
With that in mind, a new model of merchandise mix may be necessary, says Melina Cordero, Americas head of retail research at CBRE. ““The American mall itself isn’t anywhere close to dead; It’s the old mall model that is dying,” she says.
