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Marion Cummings had wanted to move her candy shop from The Gateway shopping center in downtown Salt Lake City for some time.
She said her Cummings Studio Chocolates shop never has done well at the mall because of its north-end location away from most restaurants and the movie theaters. That's why the longtime Utah candymaker is happy with the deal she inked for a new location in the Jordan Landing shopping center in West Jordan, where she believes she got a great lease.
Cummings and other small and medium-sized retailers in a position to move or expand are getting nice deals these days, either by negotiating with their landlords or moving to other shopping centers when their leases expire, as did Cummings.
The shift from a landlord's market to a tenant's market has come during the Great Recession. Retailers of all kinds have been hit hard by a sharp downturn in consumer spending, leading many to shutter locations and others to go bankrupt. Most retail properties are coping with greater vacancies than even just one year ago.
"It is definitely a tenant's market," said Darrell Tate, a retail specialist with Commerce CRG in Salt Lake City. "Landlords are doing everything they can to woo tenants to their properties."
Developers have for the most part stopped building new retail space.
"We've seen virtually no speculative retail development this year," Tate said. The only retail-oriented construction is being done by a small
In shopping centers, strip malls and other multitenant retail properties along the Wasatch Front, lease rates are edging downward, and landlord concessions, such as free rent and tenant improvement allowances, are increasing.
That makes it a good time for businesses such as Cummings to make a switch. The business, which has a manufacturing facility and shop at 679 E. 900 South in Salt Lake City, has been at The Gateway since 2002, shortly after the mall opened. That location will close at the end of the month; the Jordan Landing outlet already is open.
Marion Cummings marvels at how much lower her rent payment is in Jordan Landing, compared to The Gateway. That's always been the case, but throw in a landlord especially motivated to make a deal, and Cummings is especially pleased. She said she's paying less in her new digs, even though she has four times the space (1,460 square feet) she did in the shop downtown.
Small and medium-sized businesses that need office space are having similar experiences. Troy Burnett recently moved his residential and commercial property management company ManageCo to a 500-square foot office in Midvale from a space in Sugar House.
During his search, he found landlords willing to throw in one or more months of free rent and other concessions.
"There's a large selection of available space," he said. "And owners are anxious to get their spaces filled."
J.R. Moore, retail specialist with commercial brokerage CB Richard Ellis in Salt Lake City, said the key for any tenant is to shop around. Some landlords are more motivated than others.
"We haven't seen lease rates this low in many years," he said. "There are some great opportunities out there."
