Today's marketplace presents a post-shake-up credit industry and more cautious lending parameters than we've experienced in the past few years.

Throughout the state, retail development is a mixed bag. In some areas, like Colorado Springs, retail development has kept pace with overall development so we haven’t seen overbuilding. The Western Slope is in growth mode, and downtown Denver is fairly healthy as well. However, in a number of areas, growth has definitely slowed. Until the residential side shapes up and the credit crisis has worked through the market, retail throughout the state likely won't pick up.


Mary Beth Jenkins
President, The Laramie Co., Denver

This year, developers and retailers from around the country and throughout the world are announcing new ventures in Denver. From Hermès, the Paris fashion giant, to the 11 new retailers in The Vistas, the 154,000-square-foot outdoor extension of Park Meadows Mall, Denver is the place to open a new store for many reasons. At the same time, Colorado’s first Cabela’s is on hold and Whole Foods has consumed Wild Oats. What is an accurate diagnosis of Denver’s retail health?

In the first quarter of 2008, for the first time in eight years, metro Denver retail produced a negative absorption – a total of -257,135 sf, based on 4.87 million available sf in a 72.7 million-sf market. Retail vacancies also increased slightly to 6.7 percent. While these are indicators of the overall economic downturn, they do not negate the underlying fundamentals, the factors that will continue to propel Denver as a premier retail destination.


Jon D. Hendrickson
Associate, national retail group, Marcus & Millichap Inc., Denver

The health of the retail market is directly linked to the health of the consumer. The media, Wall Street, economists and many real estate professionals seem to agree that consumers are not as healthy today as they were one year ago.

The changes in consumer spending habits, whether it be attributable to oil prices, the weakening dollar, or the credit markets, have caused a change in the retail marketplace. Many national retailers have abruptly cut back their expansion plans and local “mom-and-pop” operators have been scrutinized to the extent that they are unable to open new locations. The combination of a weakening consumer and a slowdown in the leasing arena will cause slower growth in rental rates and upward pressure on vacancies.


Allen Ginsborg
Managing director and principal, NewMark Merrill Mountain States, Fort Collins

Da’ Nile ain’t only in Egypt, it’s in Denver too. Shopping center sellers are denying the reality of weakening retail fundamentals by holding to old values. Buyers are pricing for a retail future that doesn’t look as bright as the past few years. The number of shopping center sales in the United States is 67 percent below the prior two-year average.

Translation: The retail investment market looks like a deer in the headlights.