By Duke Wheeler, Reichle Klein Group The ongoing redevelopment of nonfunctional department store structures such as Sears and Elder Beerman, along with the retenanting or repurposing of structures such as Kmart, Giant Eagle and Value City, paved the way for many statistical and actual market improvements in the greater Toledo, Ohio, trade area. This positive trend and message supersede the closing announcements from over the past several months. First, the numbers: The overall retail market vacancy rate improved from 11.5 percent to 8.3 percent over the prior five-year period. This represents approximately 650,000 square feet of positive absorption. Most of this absorption occurred among anchor space, defined for the purpose of this article as space 20,000 square feet or larger. The vacancy rate for anchor space improved from 11 percent to 5.1 percent. Self-storage played a large role as roughly 300,000 square feet of anchor retail space was converted by the storage industry. The balance of positive absorption can be attributed to pent-up retail demand as occupiers compete for well-located, existing space in a market with limited new construction and increased construction costs. In some cases, landlords have found or will find themselves better off with a replacement tenant than …
