More Canadians will be entering their peak spending years (generally considered to be between the ages of 35 and 54) starting in 2020 — reversing a trend of the past 10 years, during which more people aged out of that particular category.
This is one of the conclusions from a recently released ICSC Industry Insights report on Canada’s shopping center industry.
Millennials are already influencing the country’s shopping center landscape, with their appetite for food-and-beverage purchases, their greater use of mobile devices, their desire for seamless digital-physical shopping channels, and their interest in walkable live-work-play environments at mixed-use centers. Landlords are introducing new experience- and entertainment-type tenants, such as luxury cinemas, gyms and performing-arts venues. Canadian retailers are also developing omni-channel capabilities, though not at the pace of U.S. retailers.
But meeting some of the demands of the Millennials can prove challenging, the report shows. For instance, strict zoning restrictions make it more difficult for Canada’s retail landlords to incorporate other property types, such as hotels, homes and offices, than it is for their U.S. counterparts.
Ivanhoé Cambridge Retail Research; figures current as of 2018
Meanwhile, pension funds continue to own most Canadian malls: They hold nearly three-fifths (58.8 percent) of the gross leasable area in the country’s 100 largest malls, the report says.
“Their attitude might be best summarized as, ‘be the best and sell the rest,’ ” the report says. “With this concentration of the most-sales-productive malls comes a high barrier to entry into particular markets, and considerable stability. Mall landlords tend to view their properties as long-term investments.”
By Edmund Mander
Director, Editor-In-Chief/SCT
