Through the first half of 2016, the southeast Valley accounted for two-thirds of new retail product in the metro area, according to a recent MarketFlash report by CBRE’s Phoenix research team.
As population growth occurs, new retail space is needed to meet demand from new residents. Currently, the southeast Valley is the most active new home market in metro Phoenix. Consequently, the area’s population has increased significantly in recent years and maintains a larger percentage of high-wage earners with higher median household incomes than the Valley as a whole.
“This is definitely an instance of ‘retail following the rooftops’,” said CBRE’s Todd Folger, first vice president specializing in retail. “The southeast Valley has seen more than 3,000 housing starts through June and just under 350,000 sq. ft. of retail product brought online year-to-date.”
To give some additional perspective, Folger states that with the anticipated completion of two Fry’s grocery-anchored centers and an EOS Fitness-anchored center by year-end, completed construction for 2016 in the southeast Valley will surpass the previous six years combined.
