Fort Lauderdale Retail Market Report

Suburban retail outperforms as large-format space taken up. Entering 2026, the metro’s retail landscape is split between tightening suburban nodes and continued urban turnover. In Plantation and Northwest Broward, local vacancy declined by over 130 basis points in 2025, ranking among the five largest drops among U.S. submarkets with at least 10 million square feet of inventory. Notably, vacancy at properties over 50,000 square feet fell below those of smaller buildings, to around 3 percent, reflecting grocery and fitness tenants competing for a shrinking pool of big-box space. Smaller-