Philadelphia’s retail lease listings dominated by older properties

By Brenda Nguyen CoStar Analytics

The amount of available retail space across Philadelphia is hovering at a multi-decade low, following several years of resilient retail demand. At the end of 2025, Philadelphia had just 17.6 million square feet of available retail space, a 5.5 million-square-foot decrease from the previous space availability peak of 23.1 million square feet at the end of 2020.

Despite several notable national retail closures in the past year, the local retail property market remains on stable footing heading into the new year. The amount of available retail space has stayed relatively flat since 2024.

The constrained supply of Philadelphia retail space is most pronounced among newer properties. Of the 17.6 million square feet of retail space currently available, only 1.1 million square feet were built after 2009—less than 7% of the total retail availability.

Only nine spaces larger than 20,000 square feet are available in buildings constructed after 2010, severely limiting expansion options for big-box retailers, grocery stores and warehouse clubs looking to expand in the area. Most new, large-format options are available as proposed developments or pad site opportunities.

The scarcity of newer retail space options stems from Philadelphia's position as one of the nation's oldest retail markets. Most retail properties in the region were built before and during the mid-1990s. As such, retail properties constructed before 1980 account for 9.7 million square feet, or nearly 60%, of Philadelphia's total amount of available retail space.

Meanwhile, retailers' strong preference for newer space has created a bifurcated market. While competition for newer buildings is hyper-competitive, older properties continue to languish on the market, grappling with obsolescence.

This forces retailers with expansion plans to wait for tenant turnover to open up opportunities in existing modern centers, or pin their hopes on growing momentum for retail redevelopment and new development.

Looking ahead, at least 6.8 million square feet of additional retail space is in various proposal stages, suggesting that once borrowing costs moderate, construction prices stabilize, and rent growth firms, shopping center development could rebound. In the meantime, many expanding retailers are focused on backfilling second‑generation space left behind by bankrupt or rightsizing chains.

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