Consumers Fuel Retail Fundamentals
To say retail is strong in Denver is an understatement. But the full basis point tightening that retail landlords in the metro area saw last year had a lot to do with the help of demolition. Retailvacancies dropped from 8.5% to 7.4%, and PPRs Paul Leonard(an affiliate of CoStar Group) says the razing of the 1.3M SF Westminster Mall really boosted occupancy.
Thats not the only thing helping fundamentals: The household income is 15% above the US, so you can claim that theres probably a little bit more disposable income in Denver, Paul says. And while job growth was double the national average (3% versus 1.5%), job growth in retail posted an impressive 5.6% growth i n 2012, versus less than 2%. The top retail deal last year came in Q4 when Sportsmans Warehouse (which has its own line of boats, so thats cool) inked a new 51,500 SF location. And Paul says many lifestyle-related retailers have been demonstrating strong growth in Denver, including Cabelas plans for two new 100k SF stores in metro Denver.
