SF Business Journal Interviews Jaime Sturgis About Filling Big-Box Retail Vacancies

Native Realty CEO Jaime Sturgis spoke with South Florida Business Journal reporter Erik Bojnansky about the prospects for vacated big-box retail spaces in South Florida. Home goods retailer Conn’s and discount retail chain Big Lots are the latest to announce plans to close many stores across the U.S.

“Indeed, some landlords will welcome the departure of their previous tenant since they were locked in a long-term lease that charged pre-Covid rates, said Jaime Sturgis, CEO of Fort Lauderdale-based Native Realty.

“These leases can stretch into 20 or 30 years, it can be encumbered for a long time, and this is the opportunity to reset that,” Sturgis said.

If the commercial property is “antiquated,” or hard to adapt, they will be redeveloped by the landlord or an investor on the hunt for new deals. “They will scrap the site and put in a new retail format, an outdoor lifestyle format, a new big box, or it might be mixed-use in nature,” Sturgis said.

Sturgis said there is high demand for retail of any size from restaurants, bars, fashion houses, and fitness centers.”

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