LAS VEGAS Shopping center pros optimistic about 2012 growth

LAS VEGAS Shopping center pros

 optimistic about 2012 growth

With a sparsely populated shopping center and no immediate prospects to fill it, what's a lonely land baron to do? Well, head to RECon 2012 of course, a place where a landlord would be hard pressed not to find her perfect match.

RECon, the global retail real estate convention hosted by the International Council of Shopping Centers, is at the Las Vegas Convention Center until May 23. This year the show attracted about 31,000 shopping center professionals, about 1,000 more than the 2011 show.

"I think, really, there's been a renewed optimism permeating the conference," said Jesse Tron, ICSC spokesman.

This year, Tron said, there's more credit available and capital is flowing back into the industry, which translates into happy convention attendees. In addition to educational sessions, RECon's expo floor features 1,000 companies encompassing more than 1 million square feet, including 100 retailers and almost 100 public sector companies.

"There's still not a lot of new development in the industry, but that's a good thing because it fixes the vacancy issue," Tron said.

In looking at industry research, Tron said retail vacancies are leveling off, which could mean new development starting in a "couple of years."

But, when thinking about new retail development, think slow, measured growth - not an explosion of new outlets as in years past.

"There wouldn't be that boom,'' Tron said. "That just wouldn't happen.''

At RECon 2012, shopping centers, retailers and real estate professionals are hard at work on the main expo floor. Look to the left and you might see Chase Bank, one of the largest financial institutions in the U.S. To the right could be fast food giant McDonald's or the Howard Hughes Corp. Either way, everybody you need to fill your shopping center is here, under one, extra-large roof, including cell phone company T-Mobile.

The communications carrier is celebrating the opening of its 1,000th premium retail T-Mobile store, all of which are run by third-party operators that are worth more than $1.5 million in liquid assets. T-Mobile operates 2,000 corporate stores in addition to the partner-run retail locations.

In the past year, T-Mobile has seen an increase of about 15 percent in contract sales via its premium retail model, according to Jonathan Blood, the company's national director of business development. While at RECon, Blood says his goals are to secure new site locations.

"We've got a really aggressive build goal. We're probably going to build close to 350 stores this year. We need more real estate to get those stores built," Blood says.

To achieve that benchmark, Bellevue, Wash.-based T-Mobile brought 18 employees to the show. GA Keen Realty Advisors, from New York City, brought five to help the company reach its RECon goals. GA Keen works primarily with real estate tenants who have leases they'd like to escape.

Harold Bordwin, co-president of Keen, booked meetings with retailers, real estate investors and landlords during the four-day show.

"We're just trying to get the word out about what we do, re-establish some old relationships and say hi to old friends," Bordwin says. "This is pretty important. Everybody's here."