Commercial Real Estate Agents See More Activity
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Where the retail corridor along U.S. Route 224 that runs through Boardman typically represents one retail market, Bill Kutlick, broker-owner of Kutlick Realty LLC, sees two.
Kutlick divides it into a primary market in the east that runs from the Interstate 680 interchange and the Toys R Us plaza and a secondary one in the western end of the township from West Boulevard to the state Route 11 interchange in Canfield.
He cites Hobby Lobby’s decision to move from its longtime Boardman address next to Giant Eagle to the east, into the Tiffany Square Plaza, which is undergoing renovation and where it will take up 55,000 square feet. Earlier this year, Fin Feather Fur Outfitters announced its move into the plaza.
“They’re basically getting a much better location and they’re right in the middle of all the other major retailers,” Kutlick says. “The 224 corridor from Toys R Us to I-680 is probably one of the hottest retail locations in Mahoning County.”
The township is among several areas where real estate agents and brokers report an uptick in activity.
A retailer such as Hobby Lobby typically doesn’t make such a move unless it’s going to result in an increase in business of 30% or more, Kutlick says.
“Retailers do a lot of studies. They study these markets quite a bit and it’s all about sales and revenue,” he says. When they look at this area, they see many retailers have enjoyed double-digit growth each year over the past three years, “unheard of in the economic times that we’ve been going through across the country,” Kutlick says.
If retailers close, he notes, it will be the result of “their overall model throughout the country,” not the locations in the Mahoning Valley. “It’s the other markets that are not producing,” he adds.
In Boardman, Kutlick also anticipates making announcements soon on a tenant taking 20,000 square feet near Jo Ann Fabrics on Market Street as well as projects along 224 near Route 11 and Tippecanoe Road. He also doesn’t anticipate the Hobby Lobby space on Boardman-Canfield Road will remain vacant for long once the retailer moves to Tiffany Square.
Austintown also remains a strong market and Kutlick reports he is dealing with national retailers and lending institutions for sites in that township. “The Mahoning Avenue-Route 46 intersection is probably the second-busiest in Mahoning County,” he says.
In Trumbull County, Kutlick is working to fill the third slot in the building at Route 46 and Mines Road where Jimmy Johns and Five Guys Burgers and Fries have opened. On Elm Road near the Route 82 bypass, he is in negotiations with another national chain restaurant on an outparcel near the new Quaker Steak & Lube and Menards opening in the long-vacant former Walmart store “is really going to solidify that [Elm road] intersection,” he says.
In addition to activity in Lordstown, where Routh-Hurlbert Real Estate, Warren, is working on major projects such as Matalco Inc. and an energy center, agent Dan Crouse says the agency sees an uptick in smaller retail and office space.
Routh-Hurlbert recently closed a deal on office space on Youngstown Road as well as for a medical building near Trumbull Memorial Hospital. Most interest the agency sees appears driven by pent-up demand.
“In the case of both parties, they were people who had been looking for a long time and we presented them with options,” Crouse relates, and both of the properties had been off the market and reintroduced. “So there is some pent-up demand very clearly. We’ve got a fair number of people nosing around and looking at things but it seems like everybody’s looking for a deal,” the agent elaborates. “We’ve just been lucky enough in the last two months to introduce both opportunities to these buyers and they were OK with them.”
Jim Grantz, broker-associate with Edward J. Lewis Inc., reports the office sector has picked up considerably. “Some of it is relocation within the marketplace but quite a bit of it is new activity,” he says. “It’s just part of the natural cycle.” While he isn’t seeing new construction, he is seeing absorption of long-vacant space.
Activity is taking place in Boardman, Austintown and Canfield, he says, the latter two being particularly popular because of the Route 11 interchanges.
“Regional access has been one of the driving factors for Austintown,” Grantz says. “I’ve seen quite a lot of activity there.” Grantz also reports finishing new Hot Head Burrito restaurants at the Eastwood Mall Complex in Niles and near Youngstown State University in Youngstown.
“As unemployment rates go down and we see the activity from all the various facets of the industrial sector that have picked up, shale being one of them, people have a little more money to spend,” he says. “You look at the Route 224 strip and you look at the vacant space next to Quaker Steak where DiBella’s [Subs] went. That sat there for quite a while before that happened.”
Business is beginning to pick up quite a bit, particularly that related to retail development, affirms John Horvath, broker associate with commercial services at Northwood Realty Services, Poland.
Among the markets where he sees activity is Columbiana County. Northwood is developing outparcels that surround the Home Depot in Salem and he is working with a retail user for a 24,000-square-foot space near the new Holiday Inn Express where a banquet hall just went in.
“We’re also talking to a national restaurant that has shown an interest in locating right in front of the Home Depot,” Horvath adds. A national franchise is going into Calcutta, which he describes as an “underserved market.”
In addition, Horvath reports a Sparkle Market is going into the former IGA grocery store in Craig Beach, and he recently arranged a lease for Callos Companies on Route 224 near Mill Creek Park in Boardman. Much of his time is spent on sites for the Dollar General retail chain, he says, which has been aggressively adding stores in the Mahoning Valley.
Horvath recently closed on a site for a new store on Robbins Avenue in Niles.
“This is a natural cycle. There’s a lot of pent-up demand,” he agrees. “We’re starting to see that play out now. Retailers are feeling more comfortable getting back into the market with both feet.”
Editor's Note: This story first appeared in the MidMay edition of The Business Journal.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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