U.S. mall owners are fighting back after a bumpy start to the year — with more than 90 million square feet of retail space already slated to go back on the market in 2018, according to data from CoStar Group, CNBC.com reported. "2018 will be a difficult year for CBL," CBL Properties CEO Stephen Lebovitz said last week. He said that CBL's first-quarter financial results were hit hardest by a wave of bankruptcies and store closures to round out last year, which also flowed into the start of 2018. In the latest quarter, CBL's occupancy rate dropped slightly to 91.1 percent from 92.1 percent a year ago. CBL's portfolio remains the least productive in the mall space, with tenant sales on average of $376 per square foot. Next in line is Washington Prime Group, which said sales at its tier-one assets were $401 per square foot during the first quarter, while sales at tier-two centers were $286 per square foot. "Since 2014, we have had approximately 2.3 million square feet, or nearly 10 percent of inline space, succumb to the black-cloaked, scythe-wielding grim reaper of bankruptcy," WPG CEO Lou Conforti told analysts and investors last week. Read more.
Occupancy issues are at the heart of many significant retail cases, as detailed in the ABI publication Retail and Office Bankruptcy: Landlord/Tenant Rights, available at the ABI Store.
