By Tim McFarland, Sansone Group It is hard to describe 2020 as anything other than a lost year. COVID-19 brought us quarantines, social distancing, masks and plenty of uncertainty. The pandemic pushed our healthcare system to the brink, stressed our supply chain and caused a global economic slowdown. The St. Louis commercial real estate market certainly felt the effects of COVID-19, with retail and hospitality being hit the hardest. The retail sector was turned upside down by lockdowns that transformed homes into virtual offices, mandates that forced the closure of non-essential businesses and capacity restrictions that required restaurants to learn how to survive without dine-in business for a large portion of the year. These factors have caused an increase in vacancy to nearly 5 percent, and average asking rates to soften to $13.02 per square foot, off by 15 cents per square foot from this time last year. Perhaps most intriguing was seeing trends in the retail market accelerated by COVID-19. E-commerce For years now there has been a trend toward e-commerce. That is true now more than ever as the pandemic has accelerated the drive to digital. More than five years of e-commerce adoption was compressed into a three-month …
