Record retailer closings are translating into significantly higher shopping center vacancies
Stan Bullard
Shoppers not going to the empty storefront that held a Pier One Imports store in Avon until last year means the pedestrian crossing gets less use.
As Rustom Khouri, CEO of Westlake-based real estate development company Carnegie Management & Development Corp., discusses conditions among the firm s shopping centers in 17 states, he sees the challenge as weathering the storm.
In Northeast Ohio, he owns three centers with substantial movie theaters that are not paying rent amid the pandemic and feels the company has a lot of vacancies. He s also thankful that his company kept leverage, and mortgage payments with it, low over the years.