What You Should Know About Strip Mall Performance
If you are a current or prospective commercial real estate investor, you may be looking for your next investment opportunity. With the rampant expansion of ecommerce, it may be challenging to evaluate commercial retail properties. However, strip malls may offer you unexpected opportunities.
Numerous Tenant Types
Strip malls have a wide variety of tenants. For example, they may house small retail shops, fast-food restaurants or offices. They also typically have grocery stores as their anchors, which results in heavy foot traffic. These complexes may have medical offices that seek to be closer to their patients rather than in a centralized hospital. For example, specialty services, such as MRI facilities, outpatient centers and physical therapy clinics are commonly found in these locations. In addition, you may find family entertainment, such as movie theaters or minigolf, and financial services or fitness centers.
Ecommerce Resistance
Most of the businesses you will find in these malls are at least somewhat resistant to ecommerce competition. For example, your local hair dresser or restaurant cannot be replaced with an online service provider. These businesses offer services you must purchase in person or goods that are not available through online marketplaces.
Resilience
Many people are looking for ways to improve their health, and they are willing to pay higher prices to purchase healthy foods. However, consumers are also dining out more often than they have in the past. Even grocery stores now offer prepared foods, such as fried chicken, premade salads or deli sandwiches. You can purchase an entire meal that is ready to eat. These malls typically house restaurants, and as trends change, so do the offerings in these locations. They strive to meet their customers’ demands, providing a market that consistently evolves and resulting short or no tenant vacancies.
Convenience
Customers seek convenience. These malls offer different types of businesses in one place. You can purchase your groceries, have a nice lunch, work out at your gym, visit your bank and get your hair cut in the same location. Many businesses even offer drive-thru services. The target market is shared among all the businesses in the mall, but they don’t directly compete with each other because the business types are so varied. Therefore, these facilities often have long-term, lucrative leases.
Market Expansion
Due to their many benefits and changing retail trends, these shopping centers are ever increasing. For example, big-box stores are closing and moving online or to local shopping centers where they can more effectively target their customers. However, these centers should have adequate signage and parking availability to attract additional clientele.
Strip malls seem to have overcome the impact of ecommerce on brick-and-mortar retailers. By choosing the right tenants and increasing customer convenience, they have actually expanded their markets and profitability.
