Landlords look to lure small businesses into big spaces

The Williamsburg Mini Mall (photo credit: Antonia's Journal)

From the New York site: Shopping malls evoke big box retail, chains and department stores. But increasingly, retail investors and property owners are seeking out mom and pop tenants.

Small retail business sales growth has outpaced that of its larger competitors nearly every month over the past four years, according to CNBC. And that has landlords looking at small businesses as a safe bet.

“They're performing far stronger than a restaurant tenant that we have there in 5,000 square feet that's national,” Anjee Solanki, national director of USA retail services at Colliers, told CNBC.

Kimco, the largest publicly traded owner and operator of open air shopping centers in North America, recently expanded a program that offers small businesses one year of free rent and reduced property charges from one to 19 states, according to CNBC.

“They're [shoppers] not going to find that tenant anywhere else, and that's ultimately what you're looking for,” Jesse Tron, an industry expert formerly with the International Council of Shopping Centers trade group, said. [CNBC] –Christopher Cameron