LAS VEGAS — With more than 30 years of experience representing tenants and landlords in retail negotiations, Jedd Nero, principal and executive managing director at Avison Young’s New York office, has worked with household-name retailers such as Hershey’s, Hugo Boss and Verizon Wireless. Nero was one of about 37,000 retail professionals who attended ICSC RECon in Las Vegas in late May. As the crowd jostled through the Las Vegas Convention Center in search of their next networking opportunity, Northeast Real Estate Business found time to chat with Nero. His insights into the rapidly changing landscape of retail real estate are detailed below. Northeast Real Estate Business: Since the beginning of the year, we’ve seen a rash of store closures nationally. In terms of the volume of these closures, what has precipitated that? Is it just online shopping or are there other factors at work? Jedd Nero: I think it’s a combination of several factors. I think we can all agree that the country is over-malled. There are about 1,200 malls in the country. By the time everything is said and done, there will probably be about 900 left. Class C and D malls have been affected the most. Certainly online …
