Reeling from a shaky holiday season and slowing mall traffic, U.S. retailers are facing increasing pressure to close stores as more of their business migrates to the internet, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. More than 10 percent of U.S. retail space, or nearly 1 billion square feet, may need to be closed, converted to other uses or renegotiated for lower rent in coming years, according to data provided to Bloomberg by CoStar Group. That’s on top of about 5,000 stores that have been shuttered in the past 18 months, an estimated 50 million square feet of space, according to Clarion Partners. “There’s probably more to come,” said Tim Wang, head of investment research at Clarion, which has about $44 billion in real estate under management. Some of the industry’s biggest names, including Sears Holdings Corp. and Macy’s Inc., have said that they would shut weak locations this year. Other companies have filed for bankruptcy or are considering it, including The Limited.
