Hope for hard-hit Newbury Street, Downtown Crossing?
Investors may still be playing it cool when it comes to buying office towers.
But they are starting to warm up once again to the idea of buying strip malls, power centers and other retail real estate, according to a new survey by Jones Lang LaSalle.
Apparently prices have hit bottom, drawing out deep-pocketed investors who had squirreled away money for just such a day, the report finds.
OK Black Friday and holiday sales – at least better than abysmal – are not hurting either.
Jones Lang’s retail sales team, headed by veteran Boston sales executive Jim Koury, have racked up $50 million in sales alone in the past three months.
These include a $22.5 million deal for a Lowe’s anchored power center under development in Lowell.
Looking ahead to 2010, Jones Lang is predicting a modest increase in retail sales.
It’s pretty clear, though, that there is no place to go but up, with retail real estate deals totaling just $5.6 billion over the first nine months of 2009.
That was down from $56.3 billion in 2007.