The Climb: Scaling retail’s new heights

Retail real estate requires an operator's mindset. While attending ICSC Las Vegas, CBRE's Americas Head of Retail Research, Ebere Anokute, spoke with us about the state of the market, challenging conventional wisdom and leveraging robust data to navigate an evolving retail landscape.Key Takeaways: ·     Investors should prioritize assets in secondary markets with strong population growth and limited new retail supply. These markets have lower vacancy rates and above-average rent growth.·     Retailers can benefit from repeat foot traffic and community loyalty by locating in centers anchored by grocery stores and in-demand service tenants.·     E-commerce accounts for about 16% of total retail sales. This requires retailers to balance brick-and-mortar and digital strategies to sustain growth.·     Grocery-anchored retail remains a compelling long-term investment, with stable cap rates and strong demand from other tenants.·     Service-oriented tenants—such as fitness, healthcare and personal care—are expanding, offering investors attractive income streams.·     Advanced analytics and local market data can pinpoint emerging opportunities and mitigate risks in a rapidly evolving retail landscape.

Futurist and author Jacob Morgan has a plan for building future-ready organizations: cultivating a thriving, accountable workforce; embracing flexibility; and applying technology to foster resilience and employee growth.Future-ready organizations track change early, plan proactively and communicate and act with clarity.Employee experience can be enhanced by setting clear expectations, providing consistent support and candidly communicating performance standards and growth paths.·      Learning and growth are essential to career security, which means investing in training and continual skills-building.·      The best leaders align support with specific employee needs and career paths rather than enacting broad policies.·      AI creates value when it helps people spend more time on high-impact work that requires judgment, creativity and communication.

Retail real estate’s comeback is undeniable. Investor Adam Ifshin details how open-air retail once again became a preferred institutional asset. Recorded at ICSC Las Vegas, Adam discusses the appeal of secondary markets, value-add strategies and the reasons why real estate operations are now the key drivers of returns.·     Open-air retail is once again an institutional asset class.·     Secondary markets offer compelling growth opportunities.·     Integrating healthcare tenants are a powerful value-add.·     Skilled operators drive higher returns, especially in tight markets.·     Limited new supply is driving long-term rent growth.

Private club entrepreneur Tommy Shuey and CBRE’s Kelly Whaley discuss how these venues fill a growing need for personalized service and engagement outside the home or office, while driving value for both property owners and local communities.·     A new “third place” is emerging: Private clubs are filling a growing desire for curated spaces where people can connect outside the home and workplace—a trend worth watching.·     Landlords stand to benefit: These venues come with specialized space requirements that can translate into enhanced asset value and differentiated tenant mixes.·     Investment opportunities are expanding: “Clubonomics” is carving out a distinct niche, especially in markets undergoing transformation and reinvention.·     Dallas offers a blueprint: The city's embrace of upscale amenities outside the traditional downtown illustrates how this trend could impact urban real estate.

Two titans of New York real estate—Larry Silverstein and CBRE’s Mary AnnTighe—reveal the vision and partnerships behind the rebuilding of the WorldTrade Center and Downtown Manhattan’s transformation into a vibrant 24/7community. They make the case for art and culture as catalysts forrevitalization, dissect the complexities of public-private collaboration andoffer insights into today’s evolving office market.

LBA Realty's John Garrigan and Eric Brown and CBRE’s Matt Carlson discuss the resilient drivers propelling growth in the San Diego market. They also make a compelling case for value-add office investments, dissect the nuances of industrial capital markets and explore the role of relationships in navigating opportunities.•      Industrial leasing is gaining momentum.•      A flight to quality still defines office demand.•      Smart value‑add strategies can restore positive leverage in certain sectors.•      In industrial & logistics, infrastructure, power and relationships are key.•      San Diego’s economic diversity lessens volatility.

Secondary investments and recapitalizations help investors find opportunity in uncertain markets. Brookfield’s Chris Reilly and CBRE's Matt White break down what returns to expect, why disciplined leverage matters and how strong operators are winning right now.·      Secondary investing lets investors buy into real estate deals midstream, with the benefit of first seeing real performance data.·      Recapitalizations are increasing as billions of real estate debt is coming due and owners need fresh capital.·      Keeping debt levels around 60% or less helps investors weather market downturns.·      Brookfield targets 12%–14% net returns in its value-add funds.·      Hands-on operating expertise matters more than financial engineering.

CBRE Global Head of Research Henry Chin discusses Q1 2026 investment performance and the prospects for the rest of the year. He opines on inflation, interest rates, resilient fundamentals, geopolitical uncertainty and key sectors to watch.

Under Armour’s Kathy Blessington shares the playbook for using real estate to support performance, culture and growth. From headquarters planning to retail and supply chain strategies to community engagement, Kathy explains how intentional, flexible spaces help global companies stay competitive and future-ready.Corporate real estate can be a powerful strategic asset, driving productivity, collaboration and business performance.Modern workplaces are shifting away from individual workstations to collaborative, brand-forward environments that better support how teams work today.A well-designed headquarters can support innovation, operations, sustainability and community engagement.Large, global portfolios require intentional design that balances brand consistency with flexibility across offices, retail and logistics space.Building flexibility into real estate portfolios allows companies to adapt more easily to hybrid work, new technologies and evolving business needs.

Retail’s recovery is real—and the best centers are winning through reinvention. Macerich CEO Jackson Hsieh and CBRE Retail Services Lead Todd Caruso discuss what it takes to create premier destinations today: complementary tenant mix, compelling anchors and using experience + technology to drive traffic and performance.· Retail underwriting now hinges on a small set of KPIs that illuminate performance.· Trade‑area analytics help focus capital on the right assets.· Anchor tenant strategies and discipline about occupier selection translate into pricing power.· Mobile data helps property owners maximize asset performance.· Leasing velocity drives NOI growth.