Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/827208
46 S C T / J U N E 2 0 1 7 Developers built some 12.5 million square meters (about 135 million square feet) of shopping center space across the globe last year, up by 11.4 percent over 2015, according to CBRE. The seven most-active markets were all in China. At the same time, the volume of projects in the pipeline declined by 22 percent as developers and tenants become pickier about locations. "In the omni-channel era, retailers are focused on ensuring that they have the optimal mix of brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce operations," said Anthony Buono, chairman of CBRE's global retail executive committee. "So they are using sophisticated analytics and market knowledge to choose the best store sites rather than the most store sites." Slightly more than 33 million square meters of shopping center space was under construction by the end of last year, according to CBRE. Of this, 26.6 million square meters is going up in the Asia-Pacific region, mostly — 19.7 million square feet — in China. Shenzhen and Shanghai together account for upwards of 40 percent of China's retail project pipeline. There is large-scale retail construction going on in some 90 percent of the cities in the Asia-Pacific, versus 56 percent in cities of the Americas, and 14 percent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. "The Chinese retail market is showing some signs of recovery," said Joel Stephen, senior director of retail advisory and transactions with CBRE Asia. "Leasing demand is stabilizing despite oversupply concerns. Retail markets are thriving across Asia-Pacific, with strong demand supporting construction in markets like Melbourne [and] Brisbane [Australia] and Ho Chi Minh City [Vietnam]." n S I T E S & C I T I E S Eastward ho! Global development is up, especially in Asia By Edmund Mander Brickman Associates investing in the downtown core. This is the same New York money that led the transformation of New York City. Moishe Mana, who was instrumental in transforming Jersey City from a loft-style industrial area into a thriving arts district, has been a real pioneer of Downtown Miami. When you get that much capital that moves into a market that has a lot of good fundamentals, the result is usually going to be pretty transformative. What advice would you give college graduates? First of all, it's a tremendous time to get into the industry. But I'd advise recent college graduates not to get caught up in the details of what they're doing, because what they're doing is probably going to change pretty dramatically in the next five to 10 years. The role that we in the brokerage and advisory business have historically played has been about helping people analyze information. But the amount of data available — and the ability to capture that data — has accelerated and will dramatically change our work in ways we don't even yet know. So my advice would be: Go into the job with a willingness to learn but with the understanding that the industry will not look the same in the future. The people who will succeed are the ones who will embrace that change brought on by data, and the ones who fight it are the ones who are going to be in trouble. Most important: Do you consider yourself an official Floridian now? Yes. Listen, I love New York. I go back about once every month. I have clients up there. I'll have meetings and go to a Giants game. But I think the fact that you can make a good living in Miami, enjoy comparable world-class entertainment and restaurants and be five minutes from the beach at all times is pretty appealing. I always look forward to flying home and enjoying everything this South Florida lifestyle affords you. n Ho Chi Minh City is a magnet for global retail