I’ve noticed more vacancies in retail centers, some of them big spaces. The highest rent area in the area, according to one of the tenants, is the shopping mall by Trader Joe’s on Carmel Mountain Road, off I-15. This summer, two tenants moved out. The Cookies for Design, which had been there since I moved here in 1999, had a Sheriff Eviction Notice. The busiest intersection in Poway, on Poway Road and Community Road, has a sign for a 7,000 sq ft lease. Something is definitely going on.
Add to that so many stores are now advertising Help Wanted in their windows. Since when does a bank do that? Something is going on – people are leaving so jobs are harder to fill and sales are down so businesses are starting to shut down.
These are leading indicators, guys! By the time this makes it into the media as, “Retails Sales down in SD, businesses shutting down”, it will be another year.
