JLL identifies the top U.S. markets for luxury retailers

Why the USA remains the destination of choice for luxury and international retail

In the United States, five major cities, New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami and San Francisco, have risen to the top of the list for luxury storefronts, according to JLL’s The New World of Retail report. JLL’s report, debuting at ICSC’s New York CoPicture1nference today, tracks the expansion of 350 retailers across the United States and assesses the vitality and attractiveness of retail markets, examining why the classic real estate principle of location, location, location remains essential to the success of brands.

The report indicates that while core metro areas ranked at the top of the list of preferred locations, they exhibit slower growth momentum compared to secondary cities. Several emerging retail markets like Dallas, Houston and Orlando possess the attributes for longer term success driven by ongoing population and income growth.

“Luxury goods embody elegance and acute attention to detail, and the storefronts and locations that encapsulate these treasures must be as unique as the goods themselves,” said Michael Hirschfeld, Senior Vice President of JLL Retail. “The retail elite typically flock to core cities where they tailor service and product mix to shoppers, but many of these metros are saturated and that’s pushing expansion in secondary cities.”

JLL’s The New World of Retail Index ranks the top U.S. retail markets based on a combination of short-term variables and sustainable long-term characteristics including household income growth, the number of total retailers, rental rates, vacancy levels, gross leasable area, and the balance of supply and demand.