Jaime Sturgis Featured in SFBJ Cover Story on Big-Box Retail Real Estate

Native Realty CEO Jaime Sturgis was the lead source in SF Business Journal writer Cortney Moore’s cover story on the future of big-box retail spaces in South Florida. The piece, titled “Reinventing Retail,” examined how landlords are repurposing vacated (or soon to be vacated) big-box spaces.

“It might sound counterintuitive, but, in many cases, South Florida retail landlords are clamoring for the opportunity to take back these vacated spaces and re-lease them,” Sturgis told SFBJ. “Because they have the opportunity to replace tenants grandfathered into decades-long leases at significantly below-market rents with new tenants at present-day rents.”

“Native Realty’s Sturgis noted that landlords are seizing the opportunity to turn vacant spaces into fitness studios or entertainment venues because the experiential businesses are in high demand.”

“Retailers operating in less appealing locations, or some of the more antiquated traditional malls, have particularly struggled,” he said. “Some of our agents are regularly touring dark big boxes in malls – spaces that are 17,000 square feet and larger – for pickleball concepts that are eager to expand.”

“Sturgis added that South Florida’s retail market continues to outperform national averages, providing landlords with the incentive to pursue unique uses for once-vacant properties at higher rents – even if a big-box space has to be reconfigured into smaller spaces.”

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