Grocery-anchored retail appears attractive to investors and lenders

Investors are growing increasingly interested in the retail sector, especially grocery-anchored retail and neighborhood centers. That is one of the key takeaways from RCLCO’s monthly webinar at the end of May.

Insights from the recent ICSC conference, retail conversion activity and the latest data on retail fundamentals were shared by Joshua Boren, managing director, strategic initiatives, at RCLCO; Simon Soomekh, managing director with RCLCO Fund Advisors; and Kelly Mangold, principal at RCLCO.

“Post-COVID, people need and want to be out of the house, spending money on retail in person,” noted Soomekh. He added that RCLCO is seeing ecommerce penetration beginning to stagnate.

He explained that not only are more people looking to experience retail in person, but ecommerce sellers are understanding they need a physical presence as well.

“Retail sales per square foot had a huge bounce over the past couple years,” said Soomekh. Total retail sales w