Austin’s future retail space picture murky?

AUSTIN – With all of the in-migration to Austin, it might be easy to assume that retail development is in high gear, but it’s not. In fact, retail development is pretty slack in Central Texas. Retail experts weighed in on the situation at the Bisnow Retail and Restaurant Development Summit recently.

“It’s a whole new day. The old model doesn’t work any more,” said Greg Weaver with Catellus Development Corp., the master developer at Mueller in Central Austin. “Smaller tenants want to be with big anchor tenants, but they’re not there anymore,” Weaver said.

Big-box power centers are losing a grip as retailers continue to downsize and move product to Internet platforms.

The construction of regional malls has also is almost nonexistent, though there are a few more big boxes now being built by the likes of Walmart Stores Inc. and Costco in the smaller cities surrounding Austin.

According to Weitzman Group, much of the current development and redevelopment is being driven by two product categories: movie theaters and fitness centers. Retail occupancy is 95 percent, which is approaching the highest occupancy recorded of 95.5 percent in 2004.

There are 30 strip centers of 15,000 sf or less are in some stage of development. Retail projects added 631,700 sf of space in 2013, a jump from 462,800 sf in 2012.

For more retail stats, see Austin Market Data Sources.