Retail

The Midland-Odessa retail market continues to get stronger due to the rise in oil prices over the last year. West Texas intermediate crude oil prices have risen from around $46 per barrel in June 2017 to more than $72 per barrel as of June 27, 2018. According to a recent survey from the Dallas branch of the Federal Reserve, new technology is allowing energy companies to break even at $25 per barrel. In addition, the Midland Development Corp. (MDC) notes that the combined Midland-Odessa unemployment rate is down to 2.8 percent, which is the lowest on record. The rise in prices, combined with this scaling of the oil-driven economy, is contributing to local consumers having more disposable income. In turn, spending at restaurants, hotels and retail stores in the Midland-Odessa area is up across the board. Housing Connects The Dots Due to the rise in oil prices and strong economic growth, demand for more housing developments in the Midland-Odessa market is strong and getting stronger. And wherever there’s a boom in housing, a new wave of retail development is likely to follow. According to the MDC, roughly 500 single-family building permits had been issued as of March, the highest first-quarter …

For the last several years, Fort Worth’s retail market has posted a vacancy rate of 5 to 6 percent, suggesting that absorption is strong yet new construction is still permissible. However, there is a difference between Fort Worth’s vacancy rate and that of comparably sized markets wherein 95 percent of the retail space is occupied. In Fort Worth, occupancy is evenly distributed from submarket to submarket. Because of this balance, the metro’s most thriving retail neighborhood — the university corridor — and the driving forces behind its growth often go overlooked. Perhaps because it has only one campus that is located within a large city and even larger metropolex, Texas Christian University (TCU) doesn’t always get the credit it deserves for driving retail growth in Fort Worth. Rarely in recent history, however, has the connection between the two been more visible. According to the school’s website, its total enrollment was approximately 10,400 students during the academic year ending in May 2017. Three years earlier, that figure stood at roughly 9,700. That difference of 700 or so students may not seem like much at first. But it bears reminding that these are young adults attending a private university. This means that …

As the number of jobs and people in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) grows, the region’s retail market holds steady. Historically, vacancy in this market tends to hover between 5 and 7 percent. So the current retail vacancy rate in the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission MSA, which according to CoStar Group is 4.5 percent, represents a couple different trends. First, the vacancy figure illustrates positive absorption of newly constructed retail space. In 2016 and 2017, the market added about 770,000 and 675,000 square feet, respectively, its highest supply additions in nearly a decade. Second, the diminished vacancy rate suggests that new retailers are entering the McAllen MSA, which can be  a gauge for the rest of the RGV. In actuality, much of the new space is being leased to retailers that already have a presence in the valley. One might think the RGV is too small a market to support healthy same-store operations, but this is not the case. Best Buy, Walmart and Ulta Beauty can attest to this. A Dominant Sector There is a common thread that unites these newcomers, and it involves single-family development. According to the latest HUD data available, single-family home sales increased 3 percent year-over-year in 2017. More …