Employment growth and household formation are kicking Phoenix-area retail leasing into high gear, De Rito Partners' Martin Leon tells us. That and lower fuel costs.

"The new locations we're seeing are primarily in densely populated areas," Martin says. New retailers and expanding existing retailers are also naturally attracted to neighborhoods with growing discretionary incomes, which is more the case than in recent years—and which describes a fair amount of the metro area these days. Existing restaurants are also continuing to expand, while some new restaurant concepts are entering the market. Marketwide, there's still a fair amount of retail vacancy.

De Rito has been involved in a flurry of recent retail deals, such as the Public Image Hair Salon's lease at Roosevelt Point in Downtown Phoenix (pictured; the company's Michael McWilliams repped the landlord); two new Starbucks locations; Tax Wizards and Siempe Tax in separate Phoenix locations; Ring Side Pub & Grub in Phoenix; the Park Avenue Barbershop and a pizza restaurant in Peoria; and an animal hospital in Mesa, among other deals.