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Lifestyle centers - like the Alamo Quarry Market and The Forum at Olympia Parkway - have been the rage in the retail business in recent years, giving the indoor shopping malls a run for their money.
Despite the hoopla surrounding these centers, a recent report by the International Council of Shopping Centers contends that regional malls are still the bestperforming property type for retailers.
According to the report, titled "The Facts on Regional Malls and What they Say About the Vitality of the Concept," mall tenants report industry-leading growth in same-store sales, operating margins and after-tax profits. Mall retailers' after-tax profits doubled in the first quarter of this year and rose a healthy 22.3 percent in the second quarter. However, open-air specialty tenants' profits rose just 35 percent in the first quarter; 19 percent in the second quarter, according to the report.
According to the report, mall occupancy for the second quarter of this year was 92 percent, up from 89 percent in the first quarter of 2002.
The factors ICSC's research team compiled in the report appear to contradict "the notion being...