MARKET INSIGHT · JUNE 2026
By Ken Schuckman · President & CEO, Schuckman Realty Inc.
A decade ago, experiential retail was a buzzword landlords used to justify a coffee shop and a few benches. Today it is a mature, underwritable leasing strategy. Fitness, food, entertainment, and wellness concepts have become genuine traffic anchors in their own right, drawing the kind of frequent, dwell-time-heavy visits that lift an entire center. The owners winning in 2026 are the ones who treat experience not as decoration, but as a core part of the merchandising plan.
Why experience became an anchor
The logic is straightforward: you cannot download a workout, a haircut, a meal with friends, or a climbing wall. Categories that deliver an in-person experience are structurally insulated from e-commerce, and they generate exactly the repeat, habitual visitation that supports the rest of the rent roll. A boutique fitness member who comes four times a week is four chances a week to cross-shop the grocer, the smoothie counter, and the nail salon. That frequency is worth more to a center than almost any single apparel tenant.
The categories driving traffic
Several experiential categories are doing the heavy lifting in our market. Boutique and value fitness concepts continue aggressive expansion and routinely fill mid-size boxes that traditional retail has vacated. Food halls and chef-driven dining destinations turn dead corners into evening and weekend draws. Wellness and recovery concepts, from cryotherapy to stretch studios, are colonizing the smaller in-line spaces. And family entertainment, from competitive socializing to indoor play, is absorbing big boxes that would otherwise sit empty. Each of these brings a different daypart and a different shopper, which is precisely the diversification a resilient center wants.
The underwriting caveats
Experiential tenants are not without complexity. Many require significant buildout, specialized infrastructure, and higher parking and utility loads than traditional retail. Some operate on thinner margins and weaker credit than a national chain, which means the landlord has to underwrite the operator, not just the concept. The discipline is to weigh the traffic and co-tenancy benefit against the credit and buildout risk, and to structure term, security, and TI accordingly. Done carefully, the trade is well worth making.
Owner takeaway: Treat experiential tenants as traffic infrastructure, not filler. The right fitness, food, or entertainment anchor can re-energize a tired center and lift the sales and renewals of everyone around it. Underwrite the operator carefully, structure the lease to protect your downside, and let the traffic do the rest.
How we can help
Schuckman Realty works with both shopping center owners and the fitness, food, and entertainment operators reshaping the experiential category. We see the expansion criteria, the buildout pro formas, and the comps in real time. If you are repositioning a box or curating an experiential mix, we welcome the conversation.
SOURCES
JLL — “Experiential Retail and the Future of the Shopping Center”
ICSC — “The Experience Economy and Retail Real Estate”
Placer.ai — “Fitness and Food Hall Visitation Trends 2026”
Cushman & Wakefield — “Retail Tenant Demand Study 2026”