Arkansas Business - Retail Q&A : Pandemic Accelerates Reinvention

Retail Q&A : Pandemic Accelerates Reinvention

: We are heavily invested in medical real estate. We have seen significant new demand for medical space in northeast Arkansas. We also own and manage multiple retail shopping centers. Due to the tornado damage at the Mall at Turtle Creek, we have filled the few vacancies in the market with former mall tenants looking for temporary space or to relocate altogether to more affordable space. : The slowest category has been traditional retail spaces which are normally attractive to national and regional retailers. … In addition, some businesses are using this slower time to reexamine their building needs, where they are located, and if they need the same space configuration. : Retail is retail. We’re going to have people that need to sell products. But the space that was traditionally occupied by a large percentage of retailers, we seem to see a lot more service businesses going into that space now. I wouldn’t say there’s a retraction in retail but it was certainly the least active of the major properties. : There’s not a ton of demand, period, in the retail world at the moment just due to COVID and the ongoing situation there. I do know fast food restaurants are doing a lot better than per se sit-down restaurants. A lot of those are closing shop, maybe permanently. : Due to an aging population, we expect the demand to continue to increase for quality medical real estate. We expect for there to be a decline in demand for retail space. The tornado was a rare event. We expect many small businesses to go out of business. We expect a huge amount of box type of tenants such as JC Penney to become vacant over the next 12-18 months.

What types of properties seem to be most in demand in your sector and why?

JOSH BROWN

HANK KELLEY

CLINTON BENNETT

ZACK KIFER

Do you expect these trends to continue?

JOSH BROWN

ZACK KIFER

Pre-pandemic, where did you see downward trends?

JOSH BROWN

CLINTON BENNETT

HANK KELLEY

ZACK KIFER

How did your sector perform in the previous year?

HANK KELLEY

ZACK KIFER

JOSH BROWN

How has the pandemic affected the market from your perspective?

JOSH BROWN

How has the pandemic affected the day-to-day ways in which you do business?

CLINTON BENNETT

JOSH BROWN

HANK KELLEY

What was the biggest surprise of the past year?

ZACK KIFER

JOSH BROWN

HANK KELLEY

What’s the outlook for the retail market for 2020-2021?

HANK KELLEY

JOSH BROWN

ZACK KIFER

| June 29th, 2020

Arkansas Business Article