| Heitman’s Jennifer Boss, also a panelist at Bisnow’s upcoming Retail Summit, says Chicago is a good barometer for US retail trends because the big national players want to be here. In this “lopsided” recovery, the high-end retailers and discounters are doing especially well. Target and Walmart are expanding in the city, while Oak Street and the Magnificant Mile are greeting new tenants like All Saints and Topshop, and existing ones like Burberry are expanding. The Walgreens that just opened in the Loop has a nail salon, a brow department, and upscale liquor. (We prefer Johnny Walker Blue... not that we ever touch the stuff.) | |
| Darcie Frankhauser, Emi Adachi, and Alan Dooleyare on the Heitman team with Jennifer. (Normally we don't put in two pictures of the same thing, but that coffee mug was just too beautiful to ignore.) She says the small local shops in grocery-anchored centers are still troubled from the downturn. For instance, your neighborhood cleaner, boutique or franchisee may well be struggling to access credit. Also slogging through are metro fringelocations like Geneva and South Elgin. Even in some upscale locations like River Forest, landlords are having trouble filling some of the expensive big box spaces, left vacant by bankruptcies and other problems. Rents are down but taxes are still high, Jennifer tells us. |
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