Encouraging news for retail space in Toledo area - 13abc.com Toledo (OH) News, Weather and Sports

Drive through the streets of Toledo and surrounding communities and you'll see a number of for sale and for lease signs for retail space, but experts say there are plenty of signs the market is heading in the right direction.

Traditionally the retail vacancy rate sits between 13-15 percent, which obviously means about 85 percent of the space is full. Experts say there is a lot of activity that will keep that number stable in the coming months.

Kurt Pollex works for the Reichle Klein Real Estate Group as a Senior Associate for retail properties. He's worked in a number of much bigger cities, but he came back home six years ago just before the local economy took a nose dive, "We went from one million plus square feet of retail space under construction in 2006,2007,2008. It's hard to keep up that level, it had to drop off and it certainly did, to next to nothing."

Pollex says things are starting to rebound in the retail world, in a big way, "Over the next year, year and a half, two years we will see more exciting projects some with existing retailers, others with new companies , but Toledo is definitely getting a hard look."

Projects like two new Chick-Fil-A's are creating hundreds of jobs. Mike Veh is the workforce development manager at The Source, Lucas County's one stop job shop,"If the people who are hired are currently unemployed that is a true benefit for the economy because they are being taken off the public payroll and put on a private payroll.'

Pollex says that's just the beginning, "I can list 20-30 retailers who are now looking at adding stores and not just re-locating but adding stores. Some will go with new construction, some with in-line space and quite a few of them are completely new to the market too."

Pollex travels to retail conventions around the country and he says selling the Toledo market is getting easier as well ,"Two years ago we heard we'll talk to you in a few years. Now we're hearing okay what do you have what are the pockets of opportunity? We don't get a straight no."

Retail makes up a big part of the region's economic engine. Veh says an increase in that sector of the market has a big ripple effect, "If retail is growing in our region there are more trucks on the road and more people unloading those trucks. Even though it may look like a small impact, because they are often lower paying jobs, it really stimulates other areas as well."

Pollex says like any other market, Toledo does have large pockets of retail vacancies, but a huge advantage for Toledo is that there are also a number of very strong retail pockets that draw millions of shoppers every year.