Six retailers that typically lease junior anchor tenant positions in shopping centers closed hundreds of stores nationwide in 2008-2009. The six largest closures were 722 Circuit City stores, 589 Linens ‘n Things stores, 367 Goody’s Family Clothing stores, 276 Steve & Barry’s stores, 135 Office Depot stores, and 103 CompUSA stores. With these 2,189 store closures, that translates to the creating more than 69 million square feet of junior anchor space availabilities.
However, this is only a part of the total junior anchor spaces available for lease at the nation’s shopping centers. Specifically, about 25% of the total spaces and 35% of the total square footage. There are currently about 8,900 junior anchor spaces totaling 200 million square feet, available for lease at existing shopping centers across the country. About 75% of this available space is currently vacant, while the remainder is currently occupied, but available for lease.
Unfortunately, many of these spaces have been on the market for a long time. Specifically, 72 million square feet of junior anchor space has been on the market for 22 months or longer, while approximately 79 million square feet has been on the market under one year and 50 million square feet has been on the market for 13 to 21 months.
In spite of the gloomy outlook, there is good news is that some retail tenants are beginning to expand and have begun filling these junior anchor vacancies. Leasing activity on these spaces began picking up slightly in summer 2009. To date at least 1,230 new retail leases qualifying for the junior anchor store size range (25,000 to 40,000 square feet).
