By Taylor Williams Retail and restaurant operators looking to enter or expand within the Philadelphia metro area are increasingly looking at suburban locations, and owners of those properties and seasoned brokers within the market both say there’s more to the trend than a simple lack of availability in key urban retail nodes. “The suburbs have been the preferred asset class — to some degree the first choice — for some retailers,” says Kari Glinski, vice president of asset management at regional owner-operator Federal Realty Investment Trust. “It started during COVID, when everybody was home, and with a lot of people living in the suburbs, we’ve seen strong demand. For well-located suburban properties, the leasing volume over the past three years has been at historical highs.” “Even over the past 12 to 24 months, supply has absolutely been constrained and should be even more constrained going forward,” Glinski continues. “For well-located properties backed by demand, new development can work. But right now, with where the cost of capital is, there’s not going to be a huge pop in new supply, thus creating a scarcity of well-located retail space.” Glinski acknowledges that since Federal Realty doesn’t operate many projects in the city, …
