Alaska's new mall tenants: local malls bring national options to Alaska consumers.

• Author: Friedman, Sam
• Position: SMALL BUSINESS

Nationally, much of the retail industry faces an existential crisis from the growth of online shopping. Locally, Alaska is headed into its second year of recession. Neither of these factors has stopped business owners, including some major national brands, from investing in Alaska malls and shopping centers this year.

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It's been a bad year for some existing national chains, most notably Sports Authority, which left four empty big box storefronts (three in Southcentral and one in Fairbanks) when the chain liquidated in the summer of 2016. Department stores have also struggled in Alaska, as they have elsewhere. This category's workforce shrunk by more than 13 percent during the past five years across Alaska, according to Anchorage Economic Development Corporation data. Discount department stores shed more than a quarter of their employees during the same period. Nevertheless, franchise, chain, and independent retail businesses are finding opportunities in Alaska's various malls.

Among new entrants to Alaska's retail shopping scene are the state's first Dave & Buster's restaurant and arcade, a new Sport-man's Warehouse in Juneau's Nugget Mall, Alaska's first Victoria's Secret store at Anchorage's 5th Avenue Mall, a series of indoor trampoline parks around the state, two Cricket Wireless cell phone stores, and new fast-casual restaurants including Smash-burger and Wild Wings 'n Things.

Here's a look at some of the changes Alaska's malls and shopping centers are undergoing.

The Anchorage Retail Market

There are recessions and then there are retail recessions. So far Alaska's largest commercial real estate market is in better shape than during the Great Recession, which hit the retail market especially hard, according to Andrew Ingram, a commercial real estate licensee at Jack White Real Estate in Anchorage.

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As part of his job, Ingram watches vacancy rates for commercial properties and keeps track of the amount of time they stay on the market. By these standards, Alaska's largest retail market is in pretty good shape. "It's still a tight retail market. It's still a good market," says Ingram.

Anchorage had a retail vacancy rate of nearly 7 percent when Ingram gave a presentation in January at the Anchorage Building Owners and Managers Association. He predicted the rate would increase by 2 percent during 2017.

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In July, vacancy rates remained on an upward trajectory with the...