Successful restaurant operators in 2023 will find a way to give customers an outstanding experience for a fair price, according to the National Restaurant Association’s What’s Hot 2023 Culinary Forecast.
Consumers will gravitate toward shared dining experiences that reflect their local culture and community in 2023, according to the report. Traditional mealtimes are evolving and consumers can access most any kind of meal or snack any time of day or night, so restaurants can stand out by offering customers new and convenient ways to order and pick up food, according to the report.
These 10 trends will fire up the restaurant industry in 2023:
1. Experiences/local culture and community will provide flavor.
2. Diners will crave fried chicken sandwiches and chicken sandwiches with spicy and fusion flavors.
3. Guests will seek out shared dining experiences like charcuterie boards.
4. Eateries will draw crowds by serving comfort fare with a twist.
5. Flatbreads and healthier wraps will satisfy sandwich lovers.
6. Operators will streamline menus to cut costs and preserve value. Some might add value meals.
7. Sriracha variations will keep the menu spicy.
8. Salad lovers will find inspiration from other cultures.
9. Zero waste, sustainability and upcycled foods will serve a growing niche.
10. Southeast Asian cuisines like Vietnamese, Singaporean and Filipino will gain popularity across the U.S.
Personal Connections and Lots of Liquidity Help Kimco Snag Rare Long Island Grocery Portfolio
Rising interest rates didn’t stop Kimco from a rare opportunity to fortify its position as the dominant grocery-anchored retail landlord on Long Island. The REIT’s $375.8 million deal to buy eight retail properties totaling 540,000 square feet comes with the assumption of $88.8 million worth of 4.1% mortgage debt with a remaining term of approximately six years. Kimco is paying the rest in cash and stock. “The strength of our balance sheet, ample liquidity and ability to provide a tax-efficient transaction for the seller put us in a prime position to be opportunistic when this multigenerational portfolio emerged,” said Kimco CEO Conor Flynn. “The acquisition also brings us closer to our target of 85% of the company’s annual base rent coming from grocery-anchored centers.”
Kimco’s eight new properties on Long Island span Great Neck, Greenvale, Massapequa Park, Syosset, West Islip and Woodbury.
JLL Capital Markets represented the seller, Kabro Associates, a private company that is winding down after owning the properties for two generations. In a competitive market, Kimco co-founder Milton Cooper’s longtime friendship with the owner helped close the deal, according to reports. “We are seeing strong activity on well-located grocery-anchored retail in today’s economic environment, given the stability of the tenancy and upside in the cash flow,” said JLL senior managing director Jose Cruz, who worked on the deal.
Of the eight properties, four are grocery anchored and one is a standalone grocery store.
Tech and Data Trades: Mallcomm and MTN Retail Advisors
Proptech platform Mallcomm is on a growth trajectory, fueled by a management buyout funded by a U.K. private equity firm. “Our aim is to expand into new regions and grow our client base across sectors, including retail, commercial, leisure and residential,” said co-founder and managing director David Fuller-Watts. He’s buying Mallcomm’s parent company from co-founder Michelle Buxton with money from Synova and will become CEO. “The Synova investment will enable us to develop the Mallcomm technology even faster,” he said. “We are developing new features that support our existing customer base and further strengthen the platform’s property management capabilities to enable a broader range of businesses to benefit, particularly owners and managers of smaller shopping centers and retail parks.” Mallcomm supports property management teams by facilitating real-time data sharing between landlords, tenants and other stakeholders at retail properties. U.S. clients include Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Brookfield Properties and Shopcore Properties, according to Mallcomm.
And information services and data analytics firm Creditntell is adding store-level, estimated grocery sales data and trade area impact analysis to its offerings by acquiring MTN Retail Advisors. MTN produces and analyzes data from more than 36,000 grocery-anchored shopping centers within the U.S. to help investors landlords and tenants make smarter credit, leasing, investment, underwriting and advertising decisions.
By Brannon Boswell
Executive Editor, Commerce + Communities Today