Q&A With … Owen Buckley, LANE 4 Property Group

Owen Buckley, Managing Partner, LANE4 Property Group, which specializes in commercial real-estate within the retail sector.

Q. A number of encouraging metrics indicate economic activity is picking up on multiple fronts, even if slowly. Will it come in time to rescue retail from the COVID-19 downturn?
A. I think the pandemic will accelerate the demise of many retailers who were already dying a slow death before this crisis. Strong retailers with an omni-channel presence have a much higher probability of surviving and benefitting from an economic activity wave.

Q. We’ve seen some high-profile retailer bankruptcy actions in the past few weeks; what’s your sense of where those actions take retail broadly?
A. Some of the Chapter 11 bankruptcies really should be Chapter 7. So, some of the big players will stick around. In many cases Chapter 11 will just prolong the inevitable and allow these retailers to shed their least profitable locations so they can hang on for a while.

Q. There are also a lot of references to increased home-delivery shopping going forward. At some point, you have to have a set amount of fixed retail space; any sense on how the retail market in this region calibrates that need and where we are now in relation to maintaining that balance?
A. The pandemic has created an opportunity for a large segment of the population to discover how technology can make their purchases and life more convenient. It has accelerated the learning curve and will result in changes coming even faster than they were before the crisis.

Q. Where will that trend take us?
A. This will result in new ways to serve customers and create many positive changes, in my mind. My guess is retail size requirements, in most cases, will continue to get smaller. So, yes, we have too much retail space in general out there. But we believe well located service-oriented retail will continue to thrive.