Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
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THE COMMON AREA percent in the first quarter, to $19.05 per square foot. Effective rent, which does not include free rent and other deal sweeteners, also rose 0.1 percent, to $16.57 per square foot. At regional malls, the vacancy rate relaxed to 9 per- cent, meanwhile, from 9.2 percent the previous quarter — marking the second con- secutive quarterly decline for that type. The average asking rent rose 0.2 percent, to $39 per square foot. Reis does not track effective rent for regional malls. Sears unlocks real estate value Landlords have been waiting for years for Sears Holdings to start unloading some of its valuable real estate. Patience is paying off for General Growth Prop- erties, which is buying 11 stores at its own malls from the beleaguered retailer for $270 million. Five of the stores are leased, and six are Sears-owned. Sears will continue to operate at these stores into 2013; the closing dates are to be announced later this year. General Growth says it will retenant some of the stores and redevelop others. Per- haps the most high-profile part of the acquisition is the Sears store at Ala Mo- ana Center, in Honolulu. "This portfolio represents a significant opportunity to recapture valuable real estate within our portfo- lio," said General Growth CEO Shobi Khan, in a prepared statement. "This acquisition also enhances several expansion and rede- velopment opportunities, including retenanting the anchor space and adding new in-line GLA. Over the next several years, we antici- pate adding 319,000 square feet of new in-line space, the majority at Ala Moana Center, in Honolulu, our most productive mall, with sales surpassing $1,200 per square foot. In addition, we look forward to continuing to work with Sears, as they represent an important anchor tenant within our portfolio." Best Buy stays ahead of rivals, report says Best Buy was the top con- sumer-electronics retailer in the U.S. last year in sales- volume terms, followed by Walmart, Apple, Staples and Amazon.com, in that order, according to market research firm NPD Group. This is unchanged from the previous year, though the per- centage of overall sales going to on- line merchants has jumped. Consumer electronics sales through online, direct mail and TV shopping channels rose 7 percent and ac- counted for about 24 percent of total sales last year, up from 22 percent of total sales in 2010, NPD says. Sales through these nonretail channels made up 25 per- cent of total indus- try revenue in the fourth quarter. "While in-store electronics categories, which once carried these stores, continue to slide. It shouldn't be forgotten, however, that a large ma- jority of mobile phones and e-readers — the two fastest growing CE catego- ries — have mostly been driven through in-store experiences." Sales of e-readers nearly doubled last year, to $15 billion, says NPD. But this increase boosted total consumer electronics sales last year by only a half per- centage point from 2010, to $28 billion. MAY 2012 / SCT 25 sales fell about 2.5 percent in 2011, the growth in online volumes for retailers meant that retail name- plates still accounted for well over four of every five dollars spent on consumer electronics in the U.S.," said Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis. "Despite their sales strength, retail stores still face serious challenges in 2012 as volumes in the traditional consumer