A&P, Sports Authority Closures Push Brick To No. 2 On Retail Vacancy Rate List: Report

BRICK, NJ — The loss of major retail anchor stores has pushed Brick Township into the No. 2 spot in a report on the retail real estate vacancy rate in New Jersey over the last year, officials said.

The report, issued Wednesday by the Goldstein Group, a leading full-service commercial real estate brokerage firm and the New Jersey member of the Retail Brokers Network, said Brick Township's Route 70/Brick Boulevard corridor had a retail real estate vacancy rate of 11.9 percent, second-highest in the state behind the Route 10 corridor in Morris Plains-Ledgewood. It looked at retail real estate leasing from July 2015 to July 2016.

"Although the retail market has substantially improved from the recession that hit in 2008 and 2009, we still continue to see vacant space due to some closings of Office Depot and Staples stores, the recent closings throughout the state of Sports Authority and the remaining Pathmark and A&P stores that haven’t been leased," the report said. "Sears, Cups, Joyce Leslie, Subway, Staples, and Office Depot have also closed or announced planned closings of locations. We’re also seeing banks such as TD Bank, Valley National Bank, and Capitol One announce closings of branches."

Brick Mayor John G. Ducey said it is the loss of A&P, Pathmark and Sports Authority that have hurt most keenly.

"This is a lot of square footage that currently sits empty," Ducey said. But he said that will change soon; Ulta is filling the A&P site at Brick Plaza, and a DSW Shoes is coming to the township as well. The vacant square footage, according to the report, was 554,492 as of July 2016. Brick has 170 retail properties comprising more than 4.6 million square feet of retail space, according to the report.

"Over 2017 and 2018 there will be many new exciting businesses filling those sites," Ducey said.

The Goldstein report said the majority of retail real estate leasing activity is from businesses opening stores of 5,000 square feet — the size of businesses specifically targeted in a Brick Township ordinance approved in 2015 to encourage the renovation of small storefronts to fill existing properties.

That ordinance allows the town to waive fees for a small business that chooses to renovate a vacate commercial property that has been empty for at least the previous 12 months and that is smaller than 5,000 square feet. The space cannot have any outstanding property taxes or outstanding property maintenance violations, according to the ordinance, and Uniform Construction Code Surcharge fees are not eligible to be waived.

"Brick is a very desirable place to open a business and that is why we have so much of it in town. Every day we see small businesses opening in what were formerly empty storefronts," Ducey said. "The same will soon be true for the bigger box stores."

The Goldstein report said retail vacancy rate has increased by just 1 percent since the survey done in July 2015 of 22 retail corridors in Northern and Central New Jersey.

The survey, the most extensive retail vacancy report for New Jersey, totals over 4,250 properties and over 100 million square feet of retail space, the report said. The retail vacancy rate is now at 7.2 percent.

"Retailers – both existing and new, coming to New Jersey for the first time – continue to lease retail space at a steady pace. New Jersey is still doing better in filling retail spaces, compared to the rest of the United States, where vacancies still average closer to 10 percent nationwide," the report said.

“Despite this increase (in available space) over last year, there are many circumstances that attributed, but fortunately we see this change to be short lived, minimal, and we expect considerable improvement in the coming year,” noted Chuck Lanyard, president of The Goldstein Group. “Absorption or leasing of vacant space continues at a strong pace.”

The Goldstein Group specializes in owner representation, retailer representation, investment sales and management services and represents more than 12 million square feet of retail space and numerous national and regional retailers and restaurants.

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