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LAS VEGAS — The reinvention of the retail sector now underway is getting a boost from a U.S. economic expansion that is nearly a decade old but which still has legs, says Hessam Nadji, president and CEO of brokerage services firm Marcus & Millichap. Meanwhile, demographic shifts have altered the retail landscape in profound ways and will continue to do so, Nadji believes. Every day, 10,000 Americans turn age 65. An even greater number, 12,000, reach the age of 21 on a daily basis. “It is the most incredible dual demographic movement of any developed country on the history of the planet. That has a lot to do with why the economy is doing well and why retail is reinventing itself.” The longest U.S. economic expansion on record spanned a decade, from 1991 to 2001. The current expansion is poised to surpass that high-water mark this July. The economy has added 21 million jobs since 2009, a modest 16 percent increase during that span, according to Nadji. Meanwhile, inflation has been held in check. The PCE (personal consumption expenditures) inflation rate has fallen 190 basis points since 2007 to 1.5 percent. The 10-year Treasury yield, the benchmark for long-term, permanent …

Assessors and their minions frequently take the position that an occupied store is more valuable than an unoccupied store, a conclusion commonly referred to as the “dark store theory.” Owners of big-box retail properties and their tax advisers bristle at this erroneous contention because real property taxes are just that  — a tax on the value of the real estate. It is the assessor’s function to value the property’s real estate components, which consist primarily of land, bricks and mortar. In the case of most big boxes, the real estate components include land, concrete, pop-up concrete or metal slabs. It is a common but mistaken practice of assessors to place a greater taxable value on a big box occupied by a major retailer than on a vacant building of equal design, construction and utility. This errant valuation methodology has given rise to controversy played out through expert testimony and sophisticated argument before administrative agencies and the courts. It is in this context that the term “dark store theory” has come into play. A call to action Owners of big-box real estate need to deliver a consistent response in the face of this increasingly pervasive and costly misconception. And because informal meetings …