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Services, fitness and restaurants buoy Washington's retail market
By Erica Champion for Capital Business
September 30, 2012
While that old sad song about Washington’s challenging office market is sounding a bit like a broken record, there is good news on the retail front.
The office vacancy rate in the nation’s capital ticked up 50 basis points over the past year, contrary to the 40-basis-point decline in office vacancy for the broader United States. The trends are reversed for retail property. The Washington region is experiencing better-than average improvement in the sector while nationally, retail continues to ride out the choppy economy. The national retail average vacancy rate recovered only 50 basis points, meanwhile retail vacancy in the president’s backyard improved nearly twice as much, by about 90 basis points.
Local store closures such as Sears and Bloom, the Food Lion concept grocery, have been a drag on the retail market here, just as they have been across the country. However, demand for retail space in the region has been buoyed by three important business segments: services, fitness and restaurants.
