Editor’s Note: This story was originally produced for our news content partner, GlobeSt.com.
PHILADELPHIA, PA—(SBN)—As the ICSC Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey chapters get ready for their dealmaking conference in Atlantic City next week, Paige Jaffe, first vice president at CBRE in Philadelphia, is looking forward to her first conference as state director for the region as she helps members cope with rapid changes in the shopping center markets.
“We should probably have between 1,200 and 1,400 people,” she says of the conference that runs from September 11-13. “It’s a little more intimate than some of the other ICSC conferences around the country. You really have an opportunity to network with a lot of these individuals that you may not have the opportunity to get in front of in other settings.”
Among the keynote speakers expected to appear at the conference is Todd Carmichael, chief executive officer and co-founder of La Colombe Coffee Roasters, a Philadelphia premium coffee company. Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian has also been invited to appear.
Listen to our exclusive audio interview with Paige Jaffe in the player below.
The conference will include a series of roundtable discussions on such topics as ADA issues, Social Media 101 for Owners and Developers, Medical Leasing, and Tax Appeals. There will also be a session on adding craft beer breweries/distilleries to shopping centers, and a more general panel on business law for retail professionals.
Experiential retail is increasingly on ICSC members’ minds, she says.
“People want more than just going to a store and buying a shirt or pair of pants,” she says. “They want a really cool dining experience, so restaurants and food and beverage is extremely hot right now. We’re seeing that all over the board in urban and suburban settings.”
Food and beverage is one of the hottest sectors in urban retain environments, driven by larger space availability, particularly in Center City Philadelphia, where retailers can be close to both office workers and city dwellers, Jaffe says.
Specialty fitness is also hot, she says. Suburban Square Mall in Ardmore, PA is a good example, where Lifetime Fitness is taking 77,000 square feet of a former Macy’s store in the mall, she says.
“It’s an example of how experience took over a big box,” she says.
Deal-making has changed somewhat, Jaffe says. “Everything takes a little longer, each one of these experiential retailers has different requirements, different build-outs,” she says. “Back in the day, your typical big box would say, ‘I need x number of square footage, I need x ceiling heights,’ and call it a day.”
E-commerce retailers are increasingly opening bricks-and-mortar outlets, particularly in urban settings, Jaffe says. “They need to have both, they need to have bricks-and-mortar, and they need an online presence as well,” she says.
Steve Lubetkin is the news director for StateBroadcastNews.com. Steve’s journalism background includes print and broadcast reporting for NJ news organizations. He refocused on multimedia journalism and podcast production after a long career in corporate branded journalism and public relations.
He has won numerous awards for his audio and video news reporting from the Garden State Journalists Association, and he has also been recognized for video by the New Jersey Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He has produced a wide range of audio and video podcasts in his other role as managing partner of State Broadcast News’s parent, The Lubetkin Media Companies.
Steve is co-author, with Toronto-based podcasting pioneer Donna Papacosta, of the book, The Business of Podcasting: How to Take Your Podcasting Passion from the Personal to the Professional.
In March 2021, he was elected to the board of directors of the New Jersey Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and in July 2021 he was named secretary of the chapter. In August 2021, he was honored by SPJ with one of the organization’s 2021 Howard S. Dubin Outstanding Pro Member Awards, given to regular members of an SPJ chapter who go above and beyond in serving their chapter.
Steve has been the computer columnist for the Jewish Community Voice of Southern New Jersey, since 1996.
Steve also has reported on-camera and produces virtual conferences for NJSpotlightNews.org, a public policy news coverage website focused on New Jersey government and industry; and for clients of StateBroadcastNews.com, a division of The Lubetkin Media Companies LLC.
From May-November 2019, he produced and reported a weekly podcast, The CRE News Hour, a news and features program focusing on the commercial real estate industry.
From 2014 to 2019 he was New Jersey and Philadelphia editor for GlobeSt.com and filled in covering Chicago/Midwest and Atlanta.
Steve has also served (from August 2017 to March 2018) as national broadcast news correspondent for CEOReport.com, a news website focused on practical advice for senior executives in small- and medium-sized companies.
Earlier in his career, Steve reported on rock music at the Jersey Shore for the Asbury Park Press, and was a broadcast news anchor and production engineer for WJLK-AM & FM, then owned by the Press. He also worked as a general assignment reporter for the Red Bank Register, Shrewsbury, NJ.
You can email Steve at steve@statebroadcastnews.com.