DALLAS – (By Dale King, Realty News Report) – The Dallas-Fort Worth retail market, stumbling as many stores were shuttered, completed 2020 with a 91.7 percent level of occupancy, a significant drop from the 93.7 percent occupancy in 2019.
That isn’t terrific, but still not all that bad, considering the one-two pummeling that brick-and-mortar stores have received from the growing online market and the disastrous worldwide COVID-19 pandemic specifically.
“Even in light of the occupancy decline, the 91.7 percent rate still represents one of the better results for the market, which has only exceeded the 90 percent occupied rate 11 times (including 2020) during the past 31 years,” said Bob Young, executive managing director of Weitzman, the major Texas-based commercial real estate services firm, in the company’s year-end report.
Shopping Centers Galore
The Dallas-Fort Worth retail market inventory “is the largest for any Texas metro area and is found in 42 submarkets that incorporate the Dallas and Fort Worth area and their suburbs,” Young said
“The (Dallas-Fort Worth) market took a hit during 2020 as the pandemic resulted in numerous closings (including some from concepts that were already struggling pre-pandemic) from chains such as x, Tuesday Morning and Stage Stores.”
Young continued: “Closings included JCPenney at Music City Mall in Lewisville, Belk at Dallas Galleria in March, Nordstrom at North East Mall, Tuesday Morning with six stores shuttered, Pier 1 with all 14 area locations shuttered, 24 Hour Fitness with 11 closings and Gold’s Gym with five closings.”
The report said the impact of overall vacancies was reduced somewhat because many shuttered stores are smaller-format locations.
Coincidentally, prior to the pandemic, the D-FW retail market reported one of its longest streaks ever of growing occupancy, which began when tenancy level reached 90 percent in 2013.
Leasing, the report says, “continued, thanks to an economy that created demand through residential and population growth. The leasing in existing retail projects stabilized occupancy since these leases represent the absorption of existing space.”
Feb. 5. 2021 Realty News Report Copyright 2021
File: Dallas Retail Market Dipped
Caption: Bob Young of Weitzman says Dallas Retail Market Dipped in 2020. Belk, JCPenney, 24 Hour Fitness, Pier 1. Image: Weitzman