Thousands of developers, landlords, brokers, retailers, brands and real estate consultants will descend on Manhattan’s Javits Center this week for the annual ICSC New York retail real estate convention — and there’s plenty on their minds.
They’ll look to close out the year with some dealmaking, plant seeds for potential partnerships in 2026 and learn about projects in the works and how to transform existing shopping venues to meet the changing needs of consumers. It’s a hotly competitive industry where costs are on the rise, new development opportunities are far and few between and organic growth rules the day.
Educational sessions will be held Wednesday and Thursday covering such topics as the state of the consumer and shopping behavior; the future of retail; strategies for investors; Gen X as the overlooked market and AI. ICSC New York started Tuesday with registration, and goes into full swing on Wednesday and Thursday. The mission of the ICSC is to “promote and elevate the marketplaces and spaces where people shop, dine, work, play and gather as foundational and vital ingredients of communities and economies.”
“AI is being use to streamline internal processes and make them more efficient,” said Stephanie Cegielski, ICSC‘s vice president of research and public relations. “You’re seeing it across all sorts of companies, in HR, finance, accounting and with attorneys looking at leases. AI is definitely aiding in their work and expediting processes.”
ICSC’s Stephanie Cegielski.
“The people who do not know how to use AI will be replaced by people who do know how to use it,” Cegielski said. “Personally, I spent a lot of time this year looking at it, studying it, seeing how it can make my life more efficient. AI can take buckets of data and analyze all of it to create an output, whereas a human might not be able to look at that much data at one time. For AI models to do that is incredibly beneficial, because you can get answers much faster, and make better business decisions.”
“People also want to know what’s going on in the capital markets and what they should be looking for in 2026,” Cegielski said. “They’re concerned about inflation, regulatory issues, the cost of goods, the impact of tariffs and interest rates on construction loans, which can range from 6 to over 10 percent, and carry fees as well.
“There isn’t much new construction, whether it’s a [result] of there not being the right space to build new, or pricing, or inflation, or interest rates. It’s expensive to borrow,” said Cegielski. “Rather than new development, what a lot of owners and developers are looking at is redevelopment, but that still comes at a cost.
“We’re looking at incredibly high occupancy rates,” she said. “So there isn’t a lot of space available to lease.”
From the landlord’s perspective, that’s a great problem to have, but there is actually a lot of retailers who would like to be in additional physical locations, Cegielski said. “Demand is high and we’ve seen that over the last couple of years. Whether it was the Bed Bath & Beyond or Joann boxes closing, they all got leased out very quickly because of the high demand for those spaces.” Joann was a major retailer of fabrics and crafts until closing most of its 800 stores earlier this year. Bed, Bath & Beyond closed about 350 stores after going bankrupt in 2023 but has recently begun opening stores again.
Asked what types of shopping centers have the highest occupancy, Cegielski said:
“I wouldn’t say it’s about the type of center. I would say it’s about the location. So where there is a strong economy, with a large residential community, you’re going to find very little space available. If you’re where the local factory has just shut down and people are out of work, there isn’t going to be as much demand because the consumer isn’t there to support the business.”
The Sun Belt has been experiencing economic and population growth, in particular the Southeast, where many people migrated to from the north due to the pandemic and where there is high demand for retail space, Cegielski said. Cities such as Nashville, Orlando and Atlanta have become very attractive to retailers, but New York City is also filling up with retailers along Madison Avenue, Fifth Avenue, in SoHo, Williamsburg and other pockets, while some other cities such as San Francisco and Portland continue to deal with high vacancy rates, partly due to crime.
To be successful, whether in an urban or suburban setting, Cegielski suggested it’s important to be aware of the level of foot traffic and how it is being impacted by hybrid work situations where management allows workers to be in the office three or four days a week. “If you’re in an urban corridor and you’re a restaurant, or fast casual [restaurant], you might want to focus your efforts in a suburban corridor, because you’re not necessarily going to have five days of consumers in the city,” Cegielski said. “You have to just understand consumers and the demographics of it.”
Offpricers, discounters and dollar stores have been the most aggressive pursuing new locations for stores, she said.
While consumers are still spending at reasonably robust rate, they’re also very price conscious and looking for deals. “Off-price retailers are doing very well right now. You can go into a Home Goods store and buy a nice wood cutting board for $12, and that makes you feel good, because you got something nice at a decent price,” Cegielski said.
While ICSC New York gathers thousands and is important for the industry, the biggest industry event of the year is ICSC Las Vegas, which is scheduled for May 18 to 20. “The biggest difference is the size. Vegas is a 25,000 person event. It’s definitely our biggest of the year. This year at ICSC New York, we will attract a crowd of 8,000 which is on par with last year,” Cegielski said. “ICSC Las Vegas gets people from all over the country and even from all over the world. With the New York event, we tend to draw a bit more from the eastern portion of the U.S.”
While confronting challenges on several fronts, the mood at ICSC New York should be upbeat considering on the holiday season has been playing out so far. As Tom McGee, ICSC’s president and chief executive officer, said last week: “Thanksgiving weekend is a cornerstone of holiday shopping and this year’s results show that shoppers are not only resilient but increasingly strategic in their shopping behaviors. They continue to leverage technology to find value and efficiency while still prioritizing in-person experiences to make the season special. Retailers that can deliver on price, convenience and memorable engagement are positioned for success, not just during the holiday season but also into the new year.”
According to ICSC’s 2025 post-Thanksgiving surveys, conducted online on Nov. 28 and Dec. 1 with 1,012 consumers:
- Seventy-seven percent of U.S. adults, a total of 206 million people shopped during the five-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, led by Millennials (88 percent ) and Gen Z (84 percent.)
- Shopping malls saw 152 million visitors during the long weekend for shopping, dining, services or entertainment, with nine in 10 Gen Zers spending time at shopping centers.
- Eighty-four percent of shoppers shopped in-store or for in-store pickup, an increase of 6 percentage points compared to 2024.
- Click-and-collect continued to drive incremental spending, as 64 percent of shoppers made additional purchases when picking up orders in-store.
