WORLD PROPERTY CHANNEL ®

Columbus City Center, Columbus, OH mall

(COLUMBUS, OH) -- No signs of recovery in the retail real estate market in Columbus, OH, one of the largest metropolitan areas in the Midwest with an estimated population of 2 million.

That's the grim prognosis from Integra Realty Resources. Vacancy is at 15.1 percent, an improvement from 16.9 percent in 2008.

After polling 20 local brokers, Integra estimates the vacancy level will remain in the 14% to 15% column through 2012.

The demolition of two largely vacant malls in 2009 eliminated several empty storefronts that would have caused the area's vacancy level to rise higher, according to Integra director Curtis P. Hannah.

Curtis P. Hannah

Hannah told the Columbus Dispatch the removal of Columbus City Center mall Downtown and Consumer Square East in the Brice Road area took 1.1 million square feet of empty retail space out of the market.

If those two centers had still been in operation, the vacancy rate would have risen slightly, Hannah told the newspaper.

Retail leasing, rental rates and property sales in Columbus have hit bottom or will bottom out this year, Hannah forecasts.

"It's hard to tell if that is just optimism, though," the broker tells the Dispatch. "I don't think there are any true signs of recovery, either nationally or locally, right now."

Kingsdale Shopping Center

Integra's findings show only 275,500 square feet of new retail space is under construction. The largest project is Continental Real Estate's redevelopment of the Kingsdale shopping center in Upper Arlington.

Despite higher vacancy predictions, Hannah says the outlook for retail real estate is still better in Columbus than in other major cities in Ohio.

He expects the Brice Road and W. Broad Street areas to continue to struggle with high vacancy rates. Vacancy at Brice Road is 29 percent; at W. Broad Street, 32 percent.

The areas "are seeing their darkest days" after losing national retailers to newer developments in higher-income neighboring suburbs, the Integra report concludes.
 

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