The Retail Sector - Winter 2016

The area’s retail market serves as a prime example of a sector that has failed to keep pace with other growth. While many merchants downtown were blessed with record sales in 2015, some new retailers have failed to gain the traction they anticipated. Restaurant properties remain active, but overall retail development had lackluster investment activity in 2015. Many merchants appear to be taking a “wait and see” approach regarding the 880,000-square-foot Mall at University Town Center that debuted in October 2014 and the proliferation of retail development surrounding the $315 million mall. As a result, many appear to have held off on potential relocations or expansions.

Though the UTC mall hasn’t lived up to either retailer or customer expectations in some cases, it nonetheless has proved to be a unique venue for retailers that had not previously been present in the Sarasota area.

 Overall, the bright retail spot in the region continues to be St. Armands Circle, which has captured both tourist traffic and local sales alike. As evidence, vacancies around the circle are almost non-existent, and the few empty storefronts and restaurants that do appear are typically quickly backfilled.

However, some pockets of retail space throughout Sarasota languish. Most noticeable is Westfield Corp.’s Southgate Mall, once the premier shopping district in Sarasota County. Tenants from Saks Fifth Avenue to Williams-Sonoma have exited the mall for UTC, leaving Southgate a shell of its former self. Plans to reinvigorate the retail hub into a “lifestyle center” focusing on dining and entertainment are proceeding, but slowly. CinéBistro’s planned early 2016 opening could help jumpstart the mall’s renaissance. Southgate’s evolution into a lifestyle center comes with its skeptics, however, and some observers remain concerned that the mall won’t regain its place as a pure retail hub and one of Sarasota’s primary shopping districts despite continued strengthening of the demographics within the mall’s selling metric.