Cincinnati Retail Market Report

Bright spots emerge amid rising multi-tenant availability. While overall metro vacancy crept up throughout 2022, several submarkets noted positive trends that will likely carry into this year. The most prominently featured were the city of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky locales. Among metro areas with more than 5 million square feet of inventory, the CBD logged the lowest vacancy in the second half of the year, hovering around 2 percent. Single-tenant properties supported the area’s tight conditions. High leasing activity by tenants looking for urban spaces will likely keep the rate compressed here throughout 2023, helping offset the impact of underperforming multi-tenant buildings. In particular, Western Cincinnati — which is the largest submarket by inventory — has grappled with lofty multi-tenant vacancy, as over 40 percent of this retail segment here was unoccupied in late 2022. The area is, however, positioned to eliminate nearly 2 million square feet of obsolete space as the former Forest Fair Mall in Fairfield is set to be demolished through the Ohio Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program.