MIAMI — Miami-Dade County’s retail market posted 120,934 square feet of negative net absorption in the third quarter, according to research from Colliers International. The decline is a sizable improvement from the second quarter, a period where the market gave back 230,698 square feet of retail space.
Year-to-date absorption remains positive for Miami-Dade County at 883,859 square feet. Despite the negative absorption in the third quarter, vacancy only dipped 20 basis points from the previous quarter.
The negative absorption in Miami-Dade County, as well as retail markets around the country, has a direct correlation with the recession-inducing COVID-19 pandemic, which has accelerated the trend of consumer spending habits to more e-commerce shopping.
The list of retailers closing big boxes in the market include national brands such as Stein Mart, Neiman Marcus, Chuck E. Cheese’s, 24 Hour Fitness, JC Penney, CMX Cinemas, Pier 1 Imports, Bloomingdales, Lucky’s Market, Sears, Sur La Table and Justice. Tenants opening in the market in the third quarter included Publix, Hobby Lobby, Five Below and AT&T, among others. Amped Fitness and Happy Floors are boutique concepts that signed leases this past quarter.
Rents continued to decline in Miami-Dade’s shopping centers in the third quarter. Average rental rates hovered at $35.93 per square foot, a drop of 18 cents from the second quarter and a nearly $3 difference from the third quarter of 2019, which is an approximately 7.4 percent decline.
New completions remain limited for the second quarter in a row at 52,084 square feet, up from 42,000 in the second quarter but down 90 percent from third-quarter 2019 (544,731 square feet), according to Colliers. Miami-Dade County has nearly 1.9 million square feet of retail space in its development pipeline.