All That Doesn't Glitter May Still Be Gold

Implications: Recent Newsweek and WSJ articles predicting gloom and doom for the shopping center industry were way off base. These writers simply took a few announced store closings (that have been in the works for quite some time) and projected a trend line that would have had the country littered with empty shopping centers. In my opinion this type of reporting is not only a disservice to the financial community but is also partially responsible for the mass hysteria that has driven down the prices of all shopping center REIT's.

Analysis: This article is well worth reading because it presents a balanced view of what is happening in the shopping center industry and compares it to the same type of events of the last 10 years. It proves that the sudden surge in store closings during the latter part of 2007  is still well below the total number of store closing in 5 out of the last 10 years.

The article also shows that WSJ and Newsweek articles have overstated the lack of expansion and understated the rate of new store growth by existing retailers.

It concludes by showing that 2007  was not an exceptional year in any way for any of the indicators that Newsweek and WSJ writers thought were newsworthy.