Jacksonville is Florida's worst retail market - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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Linens ’n Things Inc. and customerd and employees regularly visitedthe fast-food chain, an outparce in the same shopping “It’s affected me a whole lot, I can feel it rightf now,” Handcock said. “Hopefully they’lpl put something back over There is a growing amount of largdetenant space, also called big-bos space, coming on the market as more national chainss consolidate or shut down completely. More than half of the 13 retaikl submarkets in Jacksonville had an increasee inavailable mid-size storwe space and big-box store space, according to the commercia real estate data company , a D.C.
-based investor, developer and operator of retail and mixed-usse real estate, ranked the Jacksonville area as the 17th-worstg market in the country for distressed retail property. Jacksonville was the highest-ranking Florida city on the list of 63citiese nationwide, meaning it has the highest incidencew of distressed stores in Florida. Browarc County ranked No. 19, Southwest Florida No. 23, Petersburg No. 28, Orlando No. 29 and Miami/Dadwe County No. 51. Based on the indexing, the top 35 markets nationally are most likely to havedistressed assets. The remaining although stressed, are less likelgy to break under the weighgtof recession.
The rankingxs are based on how fast the vacancy rate currentvacancy rate, net absorption of new inventory, new inventory in the pipeline and level of preleasing. The Southside area of Jacksonville has been hit particularl hard with large contiguousz areas of retail spacebecomingh vacant. CoStar’s definition of the Southside area includes the Intracoastal Waterway west to Hendricks Avenue and Interstate 95 and Atlantix Boulevard southto J. Turner Butler From the first quarter of 2008 to the estimates first quarterof 2009, the number of availables stores in the 10,000- to 19,999-square-foor range went from four to 12.
The nearby Butler/Baymeadows area went from two to nine inthe 20,000-square-footg and above range. Strategic Sites-Clifford Commerciap Senior Sales Associate Tom Mundy said the amount of availabld space will likely continue to particularly in the Regency area in abouta one-mile radiue from Southside Boulevard north of Atlantic to Stat Road 9A. The popularity of that retail markeyt has been declining for several years because of the strength of The Avenues malland St. Johnws Town Center, Mundy said.
In the past 12 Linens ’n Things, Circuit Toys ’R Us, Babies ’R Us, Sofa Sound Advice and a Marshall’s all darkenecd in strip centers, while Homeworks Furniture closed in the RegencytSquare mall, which is owned by the financially strugglinhg mall operator (NYSE: GGP). “The list is pretty long for thetroubled guys,” Mundy said. “It’s expectede that we’re going to see more It’s just hard to say who and The gaping holes causedby big-bosx retailers closing has a big impact on surroundinfg retailers, said commercial broker and Warren Co. President Bob Warren.
Some of the impacts are like the fact that dark space reduces the customer draw and that smaller retailers ofteh rely on the anchors to help supporrtheir business. But some of the impacts are less obvious, like the psychological impact on customers who tend to visig shopping centers with large vacancieswless frequently. Many landlordxs understand the consequences of dark Warren said, and as a result are taking unprecedented steps to work with almost in a partnership capacity. owns the Southside Square Shopping Center and the center in the Regencuy area where the otherLinens ’n Thingsa moved out.
Company President Toney Sleiman saidthat he’d working on a letter of intent to leasew two of the three empty spaceds and is also negotiating with a couple of users interestedd in taking both emptty boxes at the Southside “I’ve got my fingers crossed that we’ve hit Sleiman said. “I’m feeling pretty good abourt it.”