Difficult times for retailers leave slew of vacant space on the market - Washington Business Journal:

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“Your community shopping centers that house the groceryg stores anddrug stores, the ones withinj five miles of your home, they’ll weatherr the storm just fine, but the larger, discretionary centerse are taking more of a hit,” said Erin spokeswoman. “Not a lot of retailers are It will be difficult to fillspaces now, but that doesn’yt mean the spaces won’t fill eventually.” The difficult environmenf is starting to cause some casualties. In mid the operator of more than200 malls, including five in filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Chicago-based sought protectiohn from creditors, listing $29.5 billion in assets and abougt $27.
3 billion in debts, making it the largest real estate bankruptcuin U.S. history. The company’s shoppingh mall holdings in includes: Colony Square Mall in Beachwood Placeand Maumee’s Shopsd at Fallen Timbers. It also has a partiao stake in the Florence Mall and KenwooedTowne Centre, both in Things are so desperate in the sector that mall s are resorting to gimmicks such as wave-makingf machines, acccording to an April report by the New York The paper reported that several malld across the country are planning to install a contraption callesd the Flowrider in vacant retailk space.
Kelly Tackett, a senior consultant with Columbus-based , said appareol shops and mall-based chains are struggling the and the developments that lean heavgy on those storesare struggling, too. The ones in a position to survivs are inthe value-oriented space. “Save-A-Lot and Aldi are acceleratin theiropening pace. Wal-Martf will benefit. They’ve been reinvesting in their storew for years to upgrade theshopping experience,” Tacketf said. Sageworks Inc.
, a Raleigh-based financialk research firm, singled out apparel, auto building material, home furnishinge and furniture stores as five of the worst performing retailk segmentsin 2008, all postinb sales declines last year compared to 2007. Accordint to Retail Forward’s annual ShopperScape report, releasedd in June, traffic at strip regional malls and lifestyle centers has declinesd forthree years. Power centers, defined as stri p centers with at least one discount department store or and outlet malls were the only centers to gain trafficd between June 2006and 2008.
“Ths landlord with little debt and great liquidit y reserves along with a strong balance sheet should maintain a stronbg position for the saidAvi Abroms, senior leasinyg representative with Centro Properties Group, whicy has corporate headquarters in Australia. The namesa of businesses going away or already gone include national players and and regionaol retailers suchas , Mervyn’s LLC and Gottschalks Inc. And on Aprilo 22, Columbus-based said it unloaded its Filene’s Basement division, telling investors the futur of the chainremains uncertain. Last Retail Ventures sold off its Valuer City DepartmentStores chain.
Filene’w is under the control of a California liquidatiohn andturnaround firm. All that means a lot of squarew footage is hittingthe market. Circuit City had five Central Ohio stores. Value City closed its two remaining Columbus shopsbefore Christmas, while a third has been convertedd into a Burlington Coat Factory. Linens ‘n’ Things shuttered two area Even retailerswho aren’t closing for good are curtailinhg growth plans. said it only will open 10 U.S. locationsw this year, a steep declinr from the 90 openedin 2008. is cutting its capital expendituresto $200 million for down from $479 million last year and $749 million in 2007.
The companyy plans 50 new stores, 27 of which will be in versus 145 new shoplast year. is focused on converting its 560 Limited Too storea into themore value-priced and power-center-based Justice brand and will slow the growth of new stores. plans 10 down from 41.