Shopping Center Convention Holds Promise for Ready Mix Industry

The International Council of Shopping Centers, a trade organization for the international shopping center industry, holds an annual convention in Las Vegas that attracts 30,000 attendees and is comprised of developers, brokers, financial institutions, city representatives and retailers. Every NRMCA National Account retailer is represented at this show, reports NRMCA Senior Director National Resources Amy Miller who attended this year's convention. The primary purpose of the convention is to create leasing deals between broker/developer and owners; however, there is abundant information available for our industry regarding growth of accounts and concrete opportunities.

The prime message at this show was real estate fundamentals are seeing improvement: demand catching up with supply; retail sales higher than 2007; overall rents higher than previous quarter; and 155,000 construction jobs added in the past year. These improvements have spurred interests of investors, primarily commercial mortgage backed securities. One area of massive expansion reported is in outlet mall facilities. NRMCA will post a list of outlet mall facilities being planned in our members-only area later this week. These facilities are being planned throughout the United States and offer great opportunity for large parking lots. Now is the time to establish concrete as a bid option in these jobs through NRMCA’s Full-Loop promotion efforts.

For more information, contact Amy Miller at amiller@nrmca.org.

National Ready Mixed Concrete Association