Retailers Descend on Las Vegas for Annual ICSC

“There’s a lot of traffic,” a Las Vegas cab driver muttered as his foot tap danced on the brake Monday morning.

About half an hour after the exhibition floor opened for the International Council of Shopping Centers’ annual ICSC Las Vegas confab at the Las Vegas Convention Center gridlock choked the streets surrounding the facility as hotel shuttle buses, cabs and rideshare drivers dropped attendees off by the loads.

Bankers, brokers, landlords and tech firms converged for ICSC’s biggest trade show of the year which runs through Tuesday afternoon, with last year’s gathering attracting over 24,300 attendees, according to the trade group.

ICSC comes as another wave of instability hits the retail industry in the form of tariffs and retailer bankruptcies, which loomed large on even the glowiest of spin coming from the halls of the convention center.

“We’re seeing there’s some disruption happening, obviously, and that’s when there’s opportunity,” said Primestor Development COO Allison Lynch. “We’re seeing retailers take space. We’ve done [recent] a deal with Paris Baguette. We’ve done a deal with BMO, the bank and South LA Cafe. So tenants are still opening and doing deals.”

The industry’s being forced to pivot once again after the past few years spent trying to crawl out from the strains caused by pandemic lockdowns and a supply chain crisis that wreaked havoc on inventory.

It’s likely by ICSC’s end, the question of whether macroeconomic uncertainties tamp down dealmaking, will be the most asked question across the convention center, guessed Chris Angelone, co-leader of JLL’s national retail group.

“There’s certainly an overriding concern about the consumer and how resilient the consumer is in what has been a volatile economy,” Angelone said. “I think certainly there is some question around the impact of just cost of goods and delivery of merchandise and how that might impact retail. But we’re still in a sub-5 percent vacancy retail environment.”

Construction chaos

The logistical annoyance caused by the convention center’s central hall construction splintered exhibitors in the north portion of the facility from those in the south hall. Attendees had to sprint outside to traverse from one side of the convention center to the other for meetings. The upside was the Vegas heat was kept in check by generally mild temperatures on Monday.

Showgoers couldn’t help but point out the construction.

Meghann Martindale, who heads up retail market intelligence at Avison Young, said she was seeing a bit of a shift in who chose to attend the show this year. Some of the friendly faces she’s used to seeing skipped out due to milestones in their personal lives. In other cases, it was the construction that gave some pause about the expense to exhibit in the midst of cranes and dirt turning.

“I think because this year was a little chaotic with the construction there were just people who [said] ‘I’m going to sit it out and I’ll be back next year. We’re going to have a bigger, better booth and do a bigger splash next year,’” Martindale offered.

All that said, Martindale added that from a productivity standpoint, Avison Young’s meeting bookings are “robust” and that continues into Tuesday, a day when the show typically gets quiet.

Primestor’s Lynch said the developer’s leasing director and acquisitions team are “booked solid” for ICSC. The conference is also a good time to get in front of city leaders and chat with them about their needs as Primestor keeps its focus on communities with large Latino populations where there’s density, she added.

Property tech firm Commercial Real Estate Exchange, or Crexi, invested in the same amount of booth space as previous years, although it had to move to the north hall to accommodate the construction.

“The location is not as good as we had over there,” Crexi senior managing director Bob Drury said, pointing to the central hall, “but I think everybody’s saying that just because of the construction.”

Still, Drury said meetings and conversations as of Monday afternoon were engaging, which stacked up with his overall assessment that the industry is “very vibrant” right now.

In fact, Drury and his crew at the Crexi booth were having fun wearing socks with the company’s logo and matching Nike Air Force 1 Lows in a navy and baby blue colorway to match with Crexi’s insignia.

“These shows — you get what you put into them,” Drury said.