National CRE News In Your Inbox.
Sign up for Connect emails to stay informed with CRE stories that are 150 words or less.
Ranking Performance Since ‘Retail Apocalypse’
New York-based Thasos, an alternative data intelligence firm that transforms real-time locations from mobile phones into insights for retailers, published its 2019 Retail REIT Performance Update to provide deep and actionable insights into the state of U.S. retail REITs. Overall it found, the foot traffic growth that U.S. malls experienced starting in late 2017 has peaked, and begun to reverse course in recent months.
Grocery-anchored open-air malls (GAOAs) continue to outperform all other mall categories, but the margin of this outperformance narrowed significantly in 2018, reports Thasos. “Experiential tenants,” including Tesla, Apple, Eataly, Starbucks Reserve and other high-end destinations, have yet to provide a meaningful edge in year-over-year visitation growth.
Beginning January 2018, small strip centers without major anchor tenants began to outperform open-air malls anchored by big-box retailers, reversing a 2017 trend.
Foot traffic to U.S. outlet malls, which are typically outdoor retail destinations, showed a significant growth decline beginning July 2018.
Thasos’ Greg Skibiski says, “Thasos Trade Area will revolutionize the way the REIT industry measures and analyzes foot traffic. The granularity of our data provides insights never before available, and will be critical in uncovering opportunities for investors and companies themselves.”
Thasos’ 2019 Retail REIT Performance Rankings:
Enclosed Retail REITs:
1. Westfield
2. Taubman Centers
3. Macerich
4. Pennsylvania REIT
5. Simon Property Group
6. Brookfield Property Partners
7. Washington Prime Group
8. CBL Properties
Open-Air Retail REITs:
1. Urstadt Biddle Properties
2. Washington Real Estate Investment Trust
3. Saul Centers
*Pictured Westfield’s Oculus World Trade Center New York
For comments, questions or concerns, please contact Dennis Kaiser
