Disaggregating Neighborhood and Community Center Property Types

Existing retail theory postulates a hierarchical space market with larger centers having greater drawing capacity and greater agglomeration benefits. In this study, rent determinants for two tiers of the proscribed hierarchical model are compared and the existence of retail center property type differences in rent determinants is evaluated. Property-specific data, competing center data and trade area data for 370 neighborhood and community centers derived from a census of retail centers for a single large MSA are used. Results indicate that community and neighborhood centers can be differentiated into distinct retail property types. The results also show that the presence of lower income households in a center’s primary trade area has a pronounced negative impact on community center rents. This paper received the award for the best paper on Retail Real Estate (sponsored by the International Council of Shopping Centers) presented at the 2004 ARES Annual Meeting.