The Sky Is Not Falling, and other Retail Trends

We are happy to report that the sky is not falling for retail, as demonstrated in this month’s issue of Trend report.  On the contrary, retail hasn’t looked better for several years. The art of agility instead of fragility has become fundamental to organizations’ current and future well-being.

Startups are often regarded as more agile, but when we look back at the first giant wave of retail closures in 2021, we see that size is not a determinant of agility. It may be a contributing factor, but the heavy anchors relative to size are the main drivers.

Consider Walmart and Amazon. They both move with agility despite their large infrastructures. Likewise, successful growth models globally seem to have agility built into their DNA, from using new distribution formats to operating small “ninja” project teams.

Move fast; be quick; think differently; respond, don’t react; dream of the opportunity; bend some rules; deliver and move on.

The first problem for fragile organizations is that they approach the same issue the same way. So, the first goal for agile organizations is to create the opportunity before anyone else.

We are fortunate to live in a region where most major retail closures have already occurred while these retailers continue to close elsewhere. We’re already rebuilding!

Several retail hotspots became evident as this issue was being put together.

The Marana Boom area of I-10 & Twin Peaks with Marana Center matures as the retail boom continues to the following interstate exchange, I-10 & Tangerine. Ryan Wissmann with  Marana Economic Development and Tourism tells us about all the current and coming retail developments in Rooftops Drive Retail In Southern Marana. From new car dealerships to furniture stores almost the size of four football fields, retail is being transformed in ways we have never seen before.

Cottonwood Properties’ Tangerine Commerce Park is part of that transformation at I-10 and Tangerine. Carson Mehl explains how this 110-acre project is coming together in Tangerine Parks Bears Fruit, with retailers paying attention.

A second retail hot spot coming is the Sunshine Mile in downtown Tucson with the redevelopment of Solot Plaza, a 30,000 SF retail strip center owned by Rio Nuevo being redeveloped by a team from Larsen Baker, including Chris Ambrosio and Jeff Ell. The enthusiasm found in The Sunshine Mile Retail Turnaround Starts with Solot Plaza is contagious, and retailers are paying attention.

Our third hot spot is on the Southwest Side of Tucson, at The Bridges and The Landing, where retailers are paying attention. Thanks to McKay Stevens for answering our questions on how these developments are Reshaping Tucson’s Southwest Side.

As Nancy McClure says in, Retail’s Resilience Makes it Nimble Against Headwinds; the worst is behind us. Everything about Retail is dynamic and ever-changing. In Nancy’s Retail Big Box Report, 348,000 SF of big box spaces were leased last year. For the second year in a row, the velocity of new leases with big box retailers was more than double that in 2020.

Although only sometimes considered retail, Bill Alter in The Success of Self Storage vs. other Property Types expands our thinking. It reminds us of what has been happening in this retail subsector and how it has been pleasing investors.

Rob Tomlinson brings it home as an evolution of retail in Clicks and Bricks: The Current Evolutionary Stage of Modern American Retail and explains how both can co-exist happily.

Welcome, a newcomer to Trend report, Angelica Dutton. We thank her for her historical perspective on retail in Arizona in The Future of Retail is Bright, Just like its History.

To all who helped with this Trend report issue, we extend our sincere thanks. These reports were made possible with the involvement of these noted individuals sharing their knowledge and time.

We also thank the Trend report team: Patti van Leer, Michael Rossmann, Melissa Vucijevic, Jack Paddock, and our newest team member, Cindy Erwin, our Sales and Marketing Specialist.

We’ll be starting work on the upcoming noteworthy Industrial trends for May.

We also thank you, our readers, for your continued support. As always, we appreciate your feedback and welcome your comments!

Watch for your copy of the Trend report in your email at 8:00 AM this morning. If you’re not yet getting the Trend report, please get in touch with Cindy@CindyErwin.com.