Strip Center Investing: A Bear Market For Dummies

The shopping center sector is stoked. The capital floodgates have finally opened up after six years of ebbing tides, and 2002 promises to be the year of acquisitions, with a deal flow that could easily run over into 2003. The shopping center sector is entering its third phase of consolidation, with investors gunning for strip centers and B-C malls. While it's too early to put a price tag on total sales volume, the fervor should result in the sale of the century...To confirm the high stakes buzz of strip center investing, Retail MAXIM's Therese Bryne surveyed the institutional investment community while attending the International Council of Shopping Centers' Las Vegas Convention this past May. Apparently, the casino patrons aren't the only ones willing to gamble. Many of today's retail investors seem willing to dismiss sound fundamentals and structural changes in exchange for a riskier "bigger bang for their buck". But gambling is a very expensive way to beat reason...