Fresh from joining Newmark Grubb Knight Frank in Phoenix, we chatted with GDC/RE founders Joe Doucett and Tim Gunnink about the state of the retail investment market. “It is dramatically better than it was five years ago, but there is still room for improvement,” Joe says. The duo says the big lag remains retailer hesitancy. Sure, vacancy rates have sank to below 10%, which is a good trend. But retailers are still peckish when it comes to expanding their bricks-and-mortar footprints. “There's still a little bit of sting left from the last downturn. It's happening, just on a smaller scale than we anticipated at this point.”

Tim and Joe made names for themselves among retail landlords during the recession by helping them reposition and release up struggling centers hit hard by vacancies. When NGKF picked them up, the duo was leading a team of nine and representing more than 8M SF of retail space with less than 7% still vacant. Among the duo's most recent deals: a home goods store called Found, which inked 12k SF at Casa Paloma (here), and First Choice ER on a ground lease at Olive Marketplace.