Why Halloween pop-ups suddenly possess so many dead retail spaces
This Washington Post article by Taylor Telford reports on how Americans will drop about $9 billion in celebration of Halloween this year. Halloween’s craziness and camp are fun precisely because they are temporary — and so are the stores that sell it to us.
Halloween pop-up stores benefit from people’s last-minute shopping tendencies and the flaws of online shopping, such as poor-fitting costumes and unreliable delivery, while landlords with dead retail space benefit from pop-ups’ need for instant store fronts. It’s a win for landlords, who get a tenant that will pay higher rent for just two or three months of occupancy.
I have been active in the commercial real estate industry as a Tenant Representation Broker or Landlord Representation Broker in the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area since 1995. I started with the company in 1997 and am now a managing Principal with Equity Retail Brokers.
In my career at Equity Retail Brokers, I have been fortunate to work with retailers including Starbucks, Verizon Wireless, Burger King, Halloween City, Blue Pearl, Banfield Pet Hospital, C2 Education, Thirsty Lion Pub & Grill, Kids Empire, Hapik, ServiceKing, Shop Rite Supermarkets, Shoe Carnival, Gander Mountain, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Babies R Us/Toys R Us, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Friday’s, Party City, Pep Boys, Firestone, FedEx, Movie Tavern, Pittsburgh Paints, Visions Federal Credit Union, Pet Supplies Plus, Quaker Steak & Lube, Wendy’s, PDQ, Wells Fargo, Travinia, Rite Aid, Alton Lane, Empire Beauty, Arby’s, PNC Bank, Lou Lou Boutique, Pet Valu, Primrose Schools, Red Robin, Applebee’s, Lime Fresh, Pancheros, Outback Steakhouse, Ruby Tuesday, TGI Friday’s, STS Tire, Noah’s, Oportun, Grassroots, Expedia, Ten Thousand Villages, Sleep Number, Sherwin Williams, and Kindercare.
Some of my landlord representation clients have included Kimco, RREEF (pension fund advisor), AEW (pension fund advisor), Steve Guttman (former President of Federal Realty), Audubon Land Development, Gambone Development, CW Capital Asset Management, and Excess Space.