Every month, we reach out to retail industry leaders in order to gain their perspective on the market. This month, we asked: Are there any new retail tenancy trends that you are particularly excited about as we enter into 2024, and why?
Rudolph Milian, President/CEO, Woodcliff Realty Advisors, LLC
I am particularly fond of the resurgence of educational franchise concepts, especially in open-air convenience centers, neighborhood grocery-anchored centers and community centers. The educational tenant can include tutoring or child development, or can offer lessons in STEM, the arts, athletics, music, cooking, sewing, coding and other hobby specialties. These types of tenants have proliferated so much because these concepts want to be in neighborhoods where their customers live. Retail landlords like them because they complement the other tenants in the center. Families tend to drop off their children at the education provider for an hour or two while often shopping in the stores within the retail center until it is time to pick up their children.
Most of the educational concepts today represent national and global franchises with ubiquitous storefronts all over. Three of the most prominent tutoring concepts are Mathnasium, Kumon and Sylvan Learning. For swimming lessons year-round, concepts such as Goldfish Swim School and Big Blue Swim Schools are taking over second-generation big-box locations in shopping centers. Lightbridge Academy and The Learning Experience offer early childhood education and day care for several hours, but they typically seek a freestanding pad or an end cap location for an outside playground. Other educational-oriented franchises seeking spaces include Romp n’ Roll, Engineering For Kids, Bricks 4 Kidz, The Little Gym, USA Ninja Challenge, Nutty Scientists, The Parisi Speed School, School of Rock and Flour Power Cooking, to name a few.
Spencer Jordan, SVP of Leasing, Steiner + Associates
I see a hybrid approach to wholesale and DTC (direct to consumer). Retailers are responding to large DTC bets made from post-COVID and others are branching out from wholesale, off-price to full-price DTC.
