Average Retail Lease Size Gets Smaller as Philadelphia Retailers Reduce Store Size Requirements

The trend of shrinking retail lease sizes in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic, persists. In 2023, the size of the average retail lease contracted by nearly 20% compared to 2018. In parallel, major big-box retailers are recalibrating their site criteria. In 2018, a dozen retail leases were signed for spaces exceeding 50,000 square feet, but that number plummeted to only five annually in 2022 and 2023.