How did the St. Louis retail market perform in the second quarter of this year? According to Gershman Commercial Real Estate, pretty much the same as it did in the first quarter.
And that’s good news. According to Gershman’s second quarter retail report, the St. Louis retail market ended the second quarter with a solid vacancy rate of 5.3 percent. That’s barely a change from the 5.2 percent vacancy rate the market saw at the end of the first quarter.
The market’s absorption rate was flat, too, according to Gershman. The company reported that the St. Louis retail market saw the absorption of negative 23,167 square feet during the quarter, compared with 275,654 square feet of positive absorption during the first quarter of the year.
Retail rents rose during the second quarter, but not by much. Gershman reported that rental rates in the St. Louis market rose at the end of the second quarter to $12.19 a square foot. That compares to $12.15 a square foot in the first quarter of 2017.
Construction was rather limited, too, in the retail market here. Only seven buildings totaling 72,979 square feet were delivered in the St. Louis retail market during the second quarter. This includes a 30,000-square-foot building at 10820 Manchester Road 100 percent occupied by CVS.
This doesn’t mean that construction crews aren’t busy. Gershman reported that there was 482,605 square feet of retail space under construction in the St. Louis market at the end of the second quarter. This includes the Shoppes of Mid Rivers, which will deliver 270,000 square feet in the St. Charles submarket at the end of 2017. This development is completely pre-leased.
