Overbuilding? Naaah!

We’ve heard both sides of the story for years. Some industry veterans have told us that the US is under retailed. Others have said for a while now that there is way too much product out there.Well, this Wall Street Journal article strongly supports the later argument. Now that the bottom has dropped out of the lending market and consumer confidence is an oxymoron, it’s not looking so good on the retail development front – especially for larger projects.The article quotes David Simon saying “there were a lot of projects that shouldn’t have been built,” and it’s not like his firm is exactly quiet on the development front. He predicts a decade of little growth after what the Journal says was an eight-year stretch of one-billion sf undertaken in the top 54 markets.Have we reached the point of saturation, or are there still communities out there dying for nearby Home Depot-anchored power centers?