Top Takeaways: ICSC Las Vegas 2024 

Retail dealmakers and industry experts came together this week at the Las Vegas Convention Center for ICSC Las Vegas 2024. Slatt Capital team members were among the 20,000+ attendees digesting insights from dozens of insightful panels spread across the 3-day event. The following is a selection of our key takeaways from the premier event.

• Diverse Tenant Mix and Experiential Retail: There is a significant shift towards incorporating non-traditional tenants such as coworking spaces, healthcare clinics, and experiential stores within retail environments. Mixed-use developments are becoming popular, integrating retail, entertainment, dining, and residential components to create vibrant community hubs​.
• Shorter Lease Terms: The trend towards shorter lease terms is driven by the need for flexibility in a rapidly changing market. This allows retailers to adapt quickly to consumer preferences and market dynamics​.
• Remodeling Over New Builds: Retailers are focusing on remodeling existing stores rather than constructing new ones. This approach is more capital-efficient and can provide faster returns on investment. It allows retailers to refresh their brand and adapt to changing consumer preferences while maintaining stability during uncertain economic times​.
• Drive-Thru and Stand-Alone Stores: The rise of on-the-go lifestyles has increased the popularity of drive-thru services for food and beverages. Additionally, retailers are favoring stand-alone stores to have greater control over their brand identity and customer experience​.
• Absence of New Construction: With the lack of new development over the past 4-years combined with the bid/ask between buyers and sellers still relatively wide, finding opportunities to deploy capital is still challenging even though the desire to do so is strong.
• Healthy Tenant Demand: Retail tenant demand is strong and will keep rents in line for near term.
• Hoops to Jump Through: High interest rate, development cost and significant municipality delays still muting new construction.
• Variety of Capital: Many investors are unaware of competitive capital being sourced for retail properties through Insurance Companies, CMBS and other non-bank resources. Banks continue to struggle to provide competitive financing due to stringent reserve requirements from the Fed and, therefore, high deposit requirements (10-20% of loan) of the borrower.

Adam Aluise
Managing Director
adam.aluise@slatt.com

Michael Kaplan
President
michaelk@slatt.com