Brick-and-mortar retail remains strong despite inflationary pressures

Brixmor Property Group owns and operates retail centers that include TJ Maxx, Kohl's, and Burlington. Jim Taylor, the CEO of Brixmor Property Group, joined TheStreet to discuss how inflation is impacting brick-and-mortar retail.

Full Video Transcript Below:

J.D. DURKIN: We cover the inflation as a pressure point, a potential pain point for a lot of these companies. How is it impacting Brixmor when you see inflation and the connection between the consumer and the pressure point the consumer is facing all the way to your role?

JIM TAYLOR: Well, the consumer obviously has been struggling with it. We're very pleased, as I know everybody is, to see inflation begin to moderate, particularly if you've seen the recent durable goods data and more confidence overall that hopefully we'll have a soft landing, which, you know, we certainly haven't been expecting for the last several quarters. For us as a landlord, inflation obviously impacts what it costs us to reposition a box or what it costs us to put in new HVAC systems, et cetera. Fortunately, that's been offset by the growth in rent. 

And one of the things that we're benefiting from as an industry is that there's virtually been no new supply in the open air industry for several years because of that, bricks and mortar retail narrative is dead. It's been the best thing for the business. So as you look out not only today but for several years to come, you can't really see any new supply because it takes a long time to deliver, to lease up, build, et cetera, which I think puts retail landlords like Brixmor in a great position to continue to drive growth in rent. And that's what we've been doing. You know, we're setting records as it relates to rate and occupancy and leasing volume. So in that way, even with this bit of near-term disruption, we feel really good about how our business is positioned.