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Shopping Centers Today -> December 2002
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NEW YORK CONFERENCE TO FOCUS ON EXPANSION
By Donna Mitchell
Several things are different about ICSC’s New York show this year, starting with its name. Gone is the label “Idea Exchange.”
“It’s gone from an idea exchange to a conference, and that is a big deal, ” said Jeffrey H. Newman, co-chairman of Government Relations, Eastern Division, and a veteran volunteer organizer of the event. Accordingly, the meeting, which runs Dec. 2-4 at the Hilton New York and Towers, New York City, is now called the New York Conference & Deal Making. The change is fitting, Newman said, for a meeting that has grown to be ICSC’s largest after the Spring Convention in Las Vegas; it attracts leading professionals from all aspects of the retail real estate industry.
The meeting, however, will continue to include some familiar features, among them a Retailers’ Runway, during which merchants will present their expansion plans for the New York Metropolitan area. Newman, who is co-chairman of Retailers’ Runway, is a senior partner at New Jersey-based corporate law firm Sills Cummis Radin Tischman Epstein & Gross and chairman of its real estate department. The other runway co-chairman is Aaron Fleishaker, ICSC’s New York/Northern New Jersey State Retail co-chairman and an executive vice president at Kimco Realty Corp.
The show will also feature a panel discussion titled “Wall Street on Retail,” during which analysts from several high-profile investment banks will review the retail industry and provide forecasts on a variety of retailers.
Last year’s show came as the city’s business community was still reeling from the Sept. 11 terror attacks. This year Wall Street panelists are expected to remain guarded about retail. Comparable-store sales performances in recent months have been weak, and many predict that holiday sales will be as well. At press time the University of Michigan announced that its index of consumer sentiment fell for the fifth month straight in mid-October, to a nine-year low.
The future of retail performance is on everyone’s mind this year, said Kenneth A. Mandelbaum, co-chairman of the New York Conference Program Planning Committee and president of KAM Management, a Millburn, N.J., real estate development, management and investment company. Consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of all economic activity in the United States, and though shoppers have for some time kept buying despite the slowing economy, economists question how long they can continue to do so.
“There is caution,” Newman said, “but at the same time, there are tremendous pockets of retail strength.” Strong retailers sometimes use economic downturns as a chance to develop strategies for geographic expansion and market-share growth, he noted.
Nothing appears to be slowing for home improvement chain Lowe’s. Robert L. Tillman, chairman and CEO of Lowe’s Cos., is slated to be this year’s keynote speaker. Although not a part of Retailers’ Runway, Tillman is expected to comment on the chain’s aggressive expansion plan for the New York area. In September the company announced its intention to spend some $1 billion to open more than 60 stores in the Greater New York City area over the next several years. With more than 800 stores in 43 states, Lowe’s is the second-largest home improvement retailer in the world, after The Home Depot.
“Currently, the company’s highest-volume stores are in metropolitan markets,” Tillman said in a press release. “Our experience shows that metro markets are ripe for the Lowe’s store concept.”
About 250 vendors and service providers are expected to exhibit at the show, said Phyllis Peterson, ICSC’s director of leasing and deal making. Dec. 3 and 4 are dedicated to deal making sessions.
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