Euart said continued consolidation in the grocery-store market does not bode well for the commercial real estate industry. As the number of players in the grocery sector decreases, I think you are seeing the number of potential big-box replacement tenants decreasing also. At some point, there are going to be way more boxes than there are tenants. As vacated shopping center anchor space comes on line, landlords struggle to backfill the space while smaller adjacent tenants often languish in the absence of a strong anchor tenant. New retailers often prefer to build instead of renovate.
Most retailers have a prototype store and they like to build exactly that store.
That is a problem when you have a vacant big box. In one of the four transactions, Publix took the space virtually as is. The other three stores either were torn down or are in the process of being torn down to make room for new construction. Adjacent tenants now may see their rents rise. In the absence of a high-profile grocery store or department store tenant, landlords are turning to other solutions to backfill space.