Last month while we wrote about our first acquisition of the year (2200 Westlake) Weingarten was already closing on a second shopping center. Nestled in Deerfield Beach, Florida, Deerfield Mall is just as far away from our newest Seattle property as another continental US shopping center could get—3,408 miles to be exact. From the far northwest to the far southeast, from Westlake’s 87,014 square feet to Deerfield’s 405,052 square feet, Weingarten is securing the best shopping centers on the market. Below are five of the paramount features of Deerfield Mall.
1. Barriers to Entry
Deerfield Beach is a well-established suburban community in northern Broward County, just south of Palm Beach County and Boca Raton. Rising tourism in this area has taken up a lot of the available land. With the area bordered by Everglades to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, expansion of any kind is quite limited. At the time of acquisition, no large-scale retail projects were proposed or under construction in the 16.2-million-square-foot submarket—the second largest retail submarket in the county.
2. Intersection
Deerfield Mall sits at the hard corner of Hillsboro Boulevard and Powerline Road, one of Broward County’s most heavily trafficked intersections, which sees over 81,000 vehicles per day. The infill center has 3,000 feet of frontage on this corner. The intersection has retail centers at all four corners and is the area’s largest concentration of national big-box retailers. The property has a signalized entrance and six access points.
3. Demographics
Deerfield Mall caters to the dense and affluent communities of South Florida. The median household value is over $300,000 within one-mile of the mall, far exceeding the state average. Within a five-mile radius of the center are 323,257 residents with an average household income of $75,048, which exceeds county and state averages. However, the mall’s consumer base extends well outside this radius.
4. Leases
National retailers account for 82% of the center, which is 95% leased. Twenty tenants have leased at Deerfield Mall for fifteen years or more, and the overall average shop tenant tenure is ten years. Notable tenants include TJ Maxx (the leading off-price apparel and home fashions retailer), Publix (the largest employee-owned grocery chain in the US), Ulta Beauty (the largest beauty retailer in the US), Dollar Tree (North America’s leading operator of discount variety stores), Marshalls, and Cinépolis. Deerfield Mall’s superior tenant mix accounts for multiple site visits per week and frequent cross-shopping within the center.
5. Cinépolis
Of all the notable tenants, Cinépolis deserves its own introduction. Although scarce in the US, Cinépolis is the number one theater company in Mexico and the fourth largest movie theater chain in the world. Cinépolis is a movie theater that features traditional, premium, and luxury experiences, the latter of which includes fully-reclining, over-sized seats, waiter service, gourmet menu, and full bar. The premium theater opened at Deerfield Mall in 2014, contributing significantly to consumer draw.
