Fitness center chain Barry’s and grocery store chain Sprouts Farmers Market have adopted a new mindset about urban versus suburban locations. Both are now paying closer attention to the ’burbs considering, as LaSalle noted in 2024, the U.S. narrative has shifted in the past decade from the “rebirth of cities” to the “rise of the suburbs.”

Traditionally, Barry’s has concentrated on urban markets, chief development officer Adam Shane said during an ICSC LAS VEGAS session titled Trends, Challenges and Opportunities: The Retailers’ Perspective, pictured at top. But as population growth rates in suburbs have outpaced growth rates in big cities, according to recent U.S. Census Bureau data, Barry’s has embraced a suburban strategy. Case in point: The chain recently signed a lease for a gym in the South Florida suburb of Boca Raton, according to Shane.

“We are an urban business that has to now think like a suburban business,” he said. “Our consumer has moved to the suburbs. Our consumer has gotten younger; the suburbs are getting younger.” This suburban focus requires Barry’s to put more thought into elements like convenience, parking and square footage, he said. “We have to look at the map and think differently in terms of our real estate strategy and really figure out how to be in the suburbs quickly.”

In January, Barry’s, which operates more than 80 fitness studios, announced it had received a strategic investment from Princeton Equity Group.

A similar scenario is unfolding at Sprouts. Chief development officer Dave McGlinchey said the company is now scouting suburban and exurban “edge” markets that other premium grocery store operators might overlook. “We’re much more opportunistic and picky about dense urban areas because it’s complicated [to operate there], especially for a grocery store,” he said. The less-urban, more-suburban approach has “kind of spread our wings,” McGlinchey said. In line with that philosophy, Sprouts opened a store in the South Florida suburb of Deerfield Beach on May 23 and is gearing up to open locations in the San Francisco Bay Area suburb of Pittsburg and the Philadelphia suburb of Woodbury, New Jersey. Sprouts operates more than 380 stores.

Urbanization of Suburbs

Suburbs were also on the mind of Cushman & Wakefield deputy chief economist and global head of forecasting Rebecca Rockey during ICSC LAS VEGAS. In 2024, Cushman & Wakefield released a study called Reimagining Cities: Disrupting the Urban Doom Loop that highlighted regionally significant walkable urban places, or “WalkUPs.” The study found WalkUPs “are crucial economic engines.” Although they occupied just 3% of land in the 15 major U.S. cities featured in the study, WalkUPs accounted for nearly 26% of real estate valuation, 37% of tax revenue and 57% of gross domestic product.

While the study focused on big cities, Rockey believes WalkUPs will contribute to the urbanization of suburbs over the next 10 years. WalkUPs are “where people want to spend time,” Rockey said during am ICSC LAS VEGAS session titled The Importance of Play: How Retail Is Driving the Evolution of Cities and Suburbs. “They’re happening everywhere. The U.S. is the global model for this,” she said. Rockey maintained WalkUPs can thrive in both urban and suburban settings. “You can have both growing at the same time,” she said.