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President’s Message

he talk of the town is the proposed Galleria Mall redevelopment. Struggling
retail centers across the country are being reimagined into mixed use
Tdevelopments with significant residential components. All us who have lived
here for any length of time lament the departure of Nieman Marcus, Saks and Lord
and Taylor from Galleria. There really isn’t an upscale shopping experience left in
Broward County, unless you count the Colonnade at Sawgrass Mills. Not Coral
Springs Mall. Not Broward Mall. Not Pembroke Lakes Mall. But it’s not just
Broward. Palm Beach Lakes Mall, Boynton Mall, and Wellington Green are all
struggling or worse.
The Urban Land Institute ULI and PwC released their annual Emerging Trends in Real
Estate publication in November. Some interesting takeaways:
• CoStar reported that overall retail vacancy climbed from 4.0 to 4.1 percent—with
more pronounced increases in certain shopping center types—as developers added
28.7 million square feet of new space, outpacing the year’s 21.2 million square feet
in occupancy gains. “Last year’s numbers were tepid all around,” the research
director of a major brokerage stated. “The lack of new development out there has
been a major factor in the market’s ability to absorb this level of closures. My big
concern heading into 2025 and beyond has been whether this dynamic could hold.
I suspect we are going to see vacancy levels climbing much more visibly in 2026.”
• Retail bankruptcies and closures only escalated in 2025. Coresight predicts that
store closures for the year will top 15,000, double the number recorded in 2024.

• Through the third quarter of 2025, the CoStar Group was reporting that national
retail vacancy had jumped to 4.3 percent with 10.6 million square feet of negative
net absorption through the first nine months of the year. Deliveries had fallen to 19.6
million square feet, with 2025 on pace to be the third weakest year for new
development this century.

• Some categories continued to outperform, especially discount and food-related
retail, while others including furniture, electronics, and appliances struggled.
Bankruptcies and closures reflected these divides, as well as the continued structural
issues facing a drugstore sector where all three of the nation’s largest chains were in
sharp consolidation mode, with one of them entering bankruptcy only to close the
last of it’s stores in October 2025. According to chain-store tracking firm Coresight
Research, traditional merchants closed more stores than they opened in 2024 for the
first time since 2020.
• Despite these headwinds, retail real estate recorded occupancy gains in 2024.
According to the CoStar Group, the U.S. market recorded positive net absorption of
21.2 million square feet in 2024.

There’s a lot of disposable income in east Fort Lauderdale, but apparently not
enough to support the types of retailers once found at Galleria. They feel that
Broward County residents can be lured to Town Center, Aventura, Bal Harbour or
even the Design District.
According the Real Deal, “Russell Galbut’s GFO Investments, InSite Group, Atlas Hill
Real Estate and Prime Finance paid $73 million for Galleria Fort Lauderdale,
representing a significant discount off the price the seller was aiming for. The
purchase does not include a Dillard’s department store building that is separately
owned, and a Macy’s store that has a ground lease.” The $73 million price shows
up on the Broward County Property Appraisers website. The Real Deal article also

8 CORAL RIDGE COUNTRY CLUB ESTATES COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION

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