Midwest

By Grant Mechlin, Sansone Group The St. Louis retail market showed impressive resilience in the second quarter of 2024, thanks to strong consumer spending and growing demand across various sectors. Despite challenges such as higher borrowing costs and persistent inflation, the market tightened considerably, with availability dropping to a record low 4.8 percent and well below the five-year average, according to CoStar. This strong absorption has persisted for nine consecutive quarters, highlighting the market’s ongoing strength. A major factor behind this is the limited new supply — only 770,000 square feet of retail space was added in the past year, with nearly all of it quickly absorbed, according to CoStar.  This scarcity has fueled development, especially in areas like quick-service restaurants, banks and discount retailers, as tenants are forced to explore new construction as the only viable option to combat a lack of supply in the market. Meanwhile, the overall prices of goods and services in the St. Louis area saw a 3.4 percent rise over the past year, according to the Consumer Price Index.  While food costs came down slightly, there was a 5.4 percent increase in energy costs and 4.3 percent for all other consumer expenditures.   Despite …