By Michael Kitch
NH Business Review

The impact of Covid-19 has hastened the coming of the so-called “retail apocalypse,” casting a shadow over the future of state’s major shopping malls, which represent some of the state’s most valuable properties and occupy some of its most prized land.

In 2019, retailers announced 9,302 store closings, 60% more than the year before. And this year, more than 2,000 stores were shuttered before the coronavirus hit its stride. Prominent among the fallen and frail are department stores — Sears, Nieman Marcus, J.C. Penney, Macy’s, Lord & Taylor — which altogether represent 60% of the anchor space and 30% of the floor space of a typical shopping mall.

“The genre is dead,” Mark Cohen of the Columbia University Business School told The New York Times.

In April, Green Street Advisors, a research firm that watches the commercial real estate market, predicted by the end of 2021 that half the remaining department stores will be closed permanently, setting malls adrift without anchors.

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