Empty Spaces

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The vacancy rate for the Rivergate marke twas 8.4 percent at the end of compared with 3.6 percent a year according to CoStar’s retail report. The markegt still had the same number of buildings and stor espace — including the 1.1 million-square-foogt Rivergate Mall. Since the beginning of the there have been more store closingzs in the area and little newleasinhg activity. “It’s going to be unless we have more national saysPeggy Sells, a broker with Colliers Turley Martimn Tucker. “If that happens then clearly we are in a much deeperf recession than we areall hoping.” Some nationakl retailers already have closed stores in the Goodlettsville market.
And several others are on shaky ground. The 33,700-square-foot Circuitg City in the Village at Rivergatde adjacent to the mall closed earlyuthis year, and the 71,000-square-foot H.G. Hilla building on Gallatin Pike South has been emptyh since the furniture store moved just nortb ofthe mall. As part of bankruptcgy proceedings, Ritz Camera has announced it will close its Rivergate Wolf Camera store andthe Boater’sz World Marine Center in Madison. Pier 1 which has a location across the street the has been closing stores sincelast year, and says it will closse up to 80 of its roughly 1,000o stores this year, though company officialz have not said whicy locations will be shuttered.
S & K Mensweatr at Rivergate Mall, another national retailer, has avoiderd the ax so far. But the compant filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protectio in February and has sold its headquarterxsin Virginia. S&K has announcef it will close another30 stores, following the 78 it closerd last year. Rivergate Mall has farecd better thanother Nashville-area malle so far. Davidson County’s Hickoryg Hollow and 100 Oaks malls and the surroundinhg retail have been on along slide, losing shoppers and tenantzs for years.
Malls nationwide have been struggling as retailers movecd on toother models, like open-aird lifestyle centers, says Ken Renner, vice president of commerciap sales and leasing for Nashville-basef Vastland Realty Group. “The economy is excellint a trend, but the trened was there before the economgwent bad,” he says. And as Rivergatew Mall has declined, it’s dampeneed other retail in the area, Rennefr says. “You’ve got a lot of satellite developmenta aroundthe mall, and you’ll find that it’s he says. “The mall was reall the big anchor ofthat area, and the mall has becomd less attractive and lost value.
” Whilre individual market situations vary, the overal l picture for retail real estate is says Howard Davidowitz, chairman of New York-based , a nationap retail consulting and investment firm. “What’s going to happen this year is we’rwe going to close thousands ofstores 200,000 actually,” Davidowitz says. He says commercial real estatr will be the next majof industry segment to fall in theeconomifc crisis, with the closing of thousand s of retail centers of all varieties including malls, lifestyle centers and shopping centers. “Everybodyg is closing stores and cuttingtheidr expansion,” he says.
“If you’rd in the shopping center business, you’re in Many shopping center owners are on the edge of goingbrokde — not just smaller operatorsa but some of the largest mall owners in the Davidowitz says.