Retail occupancy rate little changed in year

Even with a handful of big vacant properties in the market, occupancy of retail space in the Reno/Sparks area remains strong.

Roxanne Stevenson, vice president of the retail services group of Grubb & Ellis Nevada Commercial Group, said last week that retail vacancy rate in the market stood at 7.9 percent halfway through 2003.

That's virtually unchanged from the start of the year.

Rents, particularly in newer shopping centers, remain under strong upward pressure.

And shopkeepers looking for small space will continue to have a difficult time.

Among the 793,100 square feet of vacant retail space in the market are four big freestanding stores the former Target and Mervyn's locations at Moana and Kietzke lanes, the former Kmart location at Peckham and Kietzke and a shuttered Montgomery Ward store in Sparks.

The vacancy rate in freestanding stores, Stevenson said, stands at more than 26 percent in the market.

Little vacant space exists, however, in most other categories of retail space.

By category, Stevenson calculated these vacancy rates:

* Community centers: A 12.4 percent vacancy rate in the 2.2 million square feet in the market.

* Neighborhood centers: A 6.3 percent vacancy rate among 3.3 million square feet.

* Power ("big box") centers: A 1.7 percent vacancy rate with 2.3 million square feet in the market.

* Specialty/theme centers: No vacancies.

* Strip centers: An 8.5 percent vacancy rate among 1.4 million square feet of space.

The low vacancy rate in neighborhood and strip centers may be especially troublesome for entrepreneurs seeking small shop space, Stevenson said.

"There hasn't been a lot of shop space developed," she said.

Rising land prices also mean that rents are rising for retail spaces as developers and investors seek to recoup their purchase costs.

In neighborhood centers, Stevenson said, asking rents run from about $12 per square foot a year in central Reno to more than $19 Sparks and more than $21 in south Reno.