Lake County Florida Retail & Restaurant Real Estate

Retail properties are used exclusively to market and sell goods and services to a vast variety of consumers. The configuration of these properties is designed to meet a particular consumer’s buying preferences. Retail properties fall into general categories such as regional malls, neighborhood shopping centers, commercial strip properties, and single-building properties. 

Shopping Center
A shopping center is a group of commercial establishments designed, built, and managed as a unit to serve the immediate trade area. It provides on-site parking in proportion to the size, type, and number of stores in the center.

The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) provides the following shopping center descriptions.
 

Neighborhood Center
This center is designed to provide convenience shopping for the day-to-day needs of consumers in the immediate neighborhood. Supermarkets anchor half of these centers, while about a third have a drugstore anchor. A neighborhood center usually is configured as an “L” or straight-line strip with no enclosed walkway or mall area, although a canopy may cover and connect the storefronts. 

Community Center
A community center typically offers a wider range of apparel and other soft goods than the neighborhood center. Among the more-common anchors are supermarkets, super drugstores, and discount department stores. Community center tenants sell items such as apparel, home-improvement goods, furniture, toys, electronics, or sporting goods. 

Regional Center
This center type provides general merchandise, a large percentage of which is apparel, and services in full depth and variety. Its main attractions are its anchors: traditional, mass market, discount department stores, or fashion specialty stores. A typical regional center usually is enclosed with an inward orientation of the stores connected by a common walkway with parking at the perimeter.  

Super-Regional Center
Similar to regional centers, but because of its larger size, a super-regional center has more anchors, a deeper selection of merchandise, and draws from a larger population base. As with regional centers, the typical configuration is as an enclosed mall, frequently with multiple levels. 

Power Center
This type of center is dominated by large retailers, including discount department stores, off-price stores, and warehouse clubs, or “category killers.” Category killers are stores that offer tremendous selection in a particular merchandise category at low prices such as shoes, pet supplies, or sporting goods.

Fashion/Specialty Center
This type of center is composed mainly of upscale apparel shops, boutiques, and craft shops carrying selected fashion or unique merchandise of high quality and price. These centers need not be anchored, although sometimes restaurants or entertainment can provide an alternative to high-profile anchors. The physical design of the center is sophisticated, emphasizing a rich décor and high-quality landscaping. These centers usually are found in trade areas with high income levels. 

Theme/Festival Center
These centers typically employ a unifying theme that is carried out by the individual shops in their architectural design and, to an extent, in their merchandise. The biggest appeal of these centers is tourists; restaurants and entertainment facilities can anchor them. These centers, generally located in urban areas, tend to be adapted from older, sometimes historic, buildings and can be part of mixed-use projects. 

Outlet Center
Usually located in rural or occasionally in tourist locations, outlet centers consist mostly of manufacturers’ outlet stores selling their brands at a discount. These centers typically are not anchored. 

Freestanding Store
This is a commercial establishment providing goods and services in single- or multiple-use buildings of various sizes. The larger, newer freestanding stores also are referred to as “big boxes.” 

Freestanding retail development often is created on an infill basis to fill specific market gaps or local needs and may be found near major shopping centers and along major corridors. 

Common Strip Properties
These are strips of commercially zoned parcels developed for retail use. They usually have a fairly narrow trade area and offer a variety of services.