Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/122387
macerich's santa monica (calif.) Place: the tenants Posted a 5.7 Percent average sales increase, to $517 Per square foot, in 2012. power, by and large, has continued to go up as well." Whether these rosy returns will continue has yet to be seen. Anti-tax crusaders are fretting about a total of 13 federal tax increases that went into effect in January. These include rising payroll taxes, a higher top marginal rate for the wealthy, the phaseouts of a raft of exemptions and deductions, new health care taxes and more. Lachance, for one, sees such changes as a wild card for the mall sector moving forward. "What has occurred so far in 2013 is [that] you have had a significant increase in taxes at the federal level and in many states on higher incomes," he said. "That should have had a deeply negative impact on sales. But because net worth continues to go up overall, you have a tug-of-war between individuals' disposable incomes, which are decreasing, 166 SC T / M a y 2 0 1 3 and their bank accounts, which continue to get fatter." Last year those fatter bank accounts clearly contributed to more-liberal spending patterns at the mall. Annual sales productivity of nonanchor stores rose 6.9 percent on average in 2012, the Apple stores rake in some $6,000 per square foot, on average. That is impressive even in the rarefied world of luxury retail. ICSC report says, to $448 per square foot — a $29 increase over 2011. This jump was the biggest since the report's inception in 1996, says Morehouse. The 2011 high was 6.8 percent. Meanwhile, overall sales productivity got a significant lift from the electronics category, which rose by 19.5 percent last year, despite the well-publicized troubles of Best Buy and concerns over the impact of Amazon.com and other Internet retailers on brick-and-mortar electronics sales. The robust performance of Apple stores in Canada and the U.S. buoyed electronics results, Morehouse says. "That has been a big story for malls over the past couple of years," he said. "Apple stores have been a huge driver." According to an April 2012 report by research firm RetailSails, in fact, Apple stores rake in some $6,000 per square foot, on average. That is impressive even