Pre-leased retail construction deliveries are expected into 2020
Key Takeaways
- Construction is often delivering pre-leased and the Greenville-Spartanburg retail market should expect this trend to continue throughout the first half of 2020, if not longer.
- Due to new construction deliveries throughout the year, the overall average retail rental rate rose to $12.80 per square foot at year end 2019. Rental rates in core retail spaces averaged 19.34 per square foot, while urban retail shops averaged $24.18 per square foot. In non-core retail space the rent averaged $12.26 per square foot.
2019 Retail Annual Recap
Over the past 12 months, the Greenville-Spartanburg retail market absorbed 98,037 square feet despite the delivery of 132,795 square feet of new construction deliveries. New buildings contributing to the positive absorption were mostly pre-leased, free-standing shops such as: Harbor Freight, Dollar General and Dollar Tree. In addition, the fast casual restaurants Moe’s and Chicken Salad Chick were delivered to the Spartanburg submarket. Overall, the Greenville-Spartanburg retail market has remained resilient despite a few new vacant buildings leading to fluctuating vacancies, market vacancy rate only rose to 10.33% at year end 2019. Meanwhile, the urban retail vacancy rate dropped to 8.11% during the fourth quarter of 2019; 158 basis points lower than the fourth quarter of last year. Due to higher rents associated with new construction deliveries, the overall average retail rental rate rose from $10.39 per square foot during the fourth quarter of 2018 to $12.80 per square foot at year end 2019.
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