Weitzman: 2015 DFW Retail Survey & Forecast

DALLAS-FORT WORTH – Shopping center vacancies in North Texas have fallen below 10 percent for the first time in a decade.

The decline in vacant shop space is due to strong expansions by grocers and a lack of new construction, according to the Weitzman Group.

Shopping center and retail building additions in 2014 totaled 2 million sf, about half the long-term annual construction average for the area and up only slightly from 2013’s building total.

“Walmart accounted for almost half the new space built last year — 708,000 sf,” said Bob Young, Weitzman managing director. “Almost all those new properties are completely full.”

Weitzman Group is predicting that about 3 million sf of DFW retail space will open in 2015 — the boost thanks to the huge new Nebraska Furniture Mart in The Colony.

With an overall vacancy rate in North Texas of 9.5 percent, the amount of empty shopping center space has fallen significantly since the worst of the recession in 2010, when more than 14 percent of the retail building market was vacant.

Net retail leasing in DFW totaled about 2.3 million sf last year, mostly from retailers moving into new buildings as they opened. More than half of the additional retail leasing was in community shopping centers dominated by the grocery stores.

Big-box shopping centers that appeal to major national retail chains saw only about 605,000 sf of net leasing, and regional shopping malls suffered a net decline in stores.

Read more at the Dallas Morning News.

tags: DFW retail, DFW retail data