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Page 2 — Retail Properties Quarterly — February 2017
CONTENTS Letter from the Editor
T he forecasts within these pages
point to a promising 2017 for
retail real estate with a healthy
variety of development, retail
expansions and competition.
Colorado is expected to continue to
surpass many of the national retail
expectations, as it has done for several
years coming out
of the Great Reces-
sion.While Denver
and its surrounding
submarkets will con-
tinue to represent
strong opportunities,
other Colorado mar-
kets, notably Colora-
do Springs and the city of Black Hawk,
are focusing on development to usher
in even more retailers and investors.
However, even with strong market
fundamentals, not all retailers are
immune to shifting retail trends. And
while many retailers reported a solid
holiday bump in sales, several large
retailers reassessed and declared bank-
ruptcy or announced store closures
to combat dwindling sales following
the holiday season.These soon-to-be
vacant spaces will give owners, man-
agers and investors the incentive to
reassess retail needs in order to find
tenants that meet shifting consumer
expectations.
Going hand-in-hand with sales vol-
umes, consumer spending in Denver is
up across all demographics. JPMorgan
Chase & Co.’s Local Consumer Com-
merce Index measures monthly year-
over-year growth of debit and credit
card spending frommore than 54 mil-
lion Chase customers across 15 cities.
In September, Denver residents spent
6.9 percent more than they did a year
ago. Nationally, consumers spent 1.5
percent less than the previous Septem-
ber, the report stated, which represents
the third-largest decline in year-over-
year growth since the bank began
tracking monthly spending growth in
2013.
Within the Denver customer sample,
all ages were spending more, but those
under 25 led the spending increase.
Restaurant spending in Denver enjoyed
a 5 percent increase from the previous
year, while spending on fuel around
the city decreased 7.9 percent.
The report didn’t examine howmuch
of that spending was done with online
retailers.Within this publication, you’ll
read several articles about how retailers
are resisting, embracing or succumbing
to online sales. One of the most com-
mon ways to combat online retailers is
to shift away from selling goods to sell-
ing services. Shopping center owners,
brokers and managers are seeking ten-
ants who offer an experience over, or in
addition to, products.This change was
visible for the past few decades, but
it enjoyed a fairly dramatic escalation
following the recession, I learned while
working on this issue’s cover story.
Many of these topics will be further
explored during the Colorado Real
Estate Journal’s 2017 Retail Summit
and Expo Feb. ve moved confer-
ence locations to the Hyatt Regency
Aurora-Denver Conference Center.
Visit our website, to see
the agenda and purchase tickets for
this afternoon event. I hope to see you
there.
303-623-1148, Ext. 104
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