Features

LAS VEGAS — Over the past five years, CBL Properties (NYSE: CBL) has been disposing of “lower-productivity properties” and redeveloping several others. These moves reflect efforts to boost performance and upgrade the overall portfolio, which is largely concentrated in the Southeast and Midwest. Since 2013, the Chattanooga, Tenn.-based REIT has disposed of 21 mall assets and a number of other non-mall properties. In 2017 alone, CBL sold an outlet center, three malls, two office buildings and outparcel locations for a total of more than $180 million in proceeds. During the first quarter of 2018, $40 million in disposition activity was either completed or in process, including a binding contract for the sale of Janesville Mall, a tier-three shopping center located in Janesville, Wisconsin. Due to a combination of factors — including the threat of e-commerce and slipping occupancy for a period of time — the company’s stock price has taken a tumble during the past few years. Shares of CBL, which traded at $14.20 per share on Aug. 26, 2016, had fallen to $5.43 per share by the close of business on Wednesday, June 13. The key to righting the ship lies in redeveloping existing properties rather than conducting a …

LAS VEGAS — After nearly 35 years of developing and brokering commercial real estate, Scott McLain has no doubt about the deep connection between retail and human nature. McLain, principal and managing broker of Huntsville, Ala.-based Coldwell Banker Commercial McLain Real Estate, sees e-commerce and other new forms of delivering retail products and services as mechanisms that hit on the most basic wants and needs of consumers. For all the talk about how e-commerce is putting retailers out of business, McLain’s view is that retailers that don’t offer value, convenience or the ability to delight consumers are the most vulnerable and have been exposed by online competitors. That holds equally true for online-based and brick-and-mortar retailers. REBusinessOnline.com caught up with McLain at the RECon show in Las Vegas in late May for a quick lesson in human psychology and how it applies to Amazon, store closures and retail real estate in the 21st century. His edited responses are as follows: REBusinessOnline.com: In your opinion, have we seen the worst of the store closures yet? How do you see the closures playing out over the next 12 months? Scott McLain: What I’ve discerned recently about this industry is that there’s a …

LAS VEGAS — Another massive spate of store closures is coming in America, and both retail landlords and operators should expect to feel the strains of an over-retailed market until the next recession, according to one of the nation’s leading analysts of retail real estate. Garrick Brown, vice president of retail intelligence at Cushman & Wakefield’s Rancho Cordova, California, office, believes that an overall economic downturn will be a key catalyst in alleviating America’s excess retail space, as a recession will push retailers that are eking out a profit over the red line. The arrival of an economic slump that reduces consumers’ disposable incomes should trigger the next wave of store closures, said Brown. The victims are bound to be retailers that have yet to distinguish themselves from their competitors in terms of either product pricing or shopping experience. Brown spoke to REBusinessOnline at ICSC RECon in Las Vegas, the world’s largest retail trade show that was held on May 20-23. In addition to laying down some tough realities for American retail, Brown noted that the next couple years are likely to see more leveraged buyouts of struggling retailers as well as a rise in food hall concepts. Brown’s edited …