Retailers Want Bigger Stores Now. Here's Where They're Landing in Reno.

The retail real estate story of the past month is not about store closings. It is about size.

Through August, the store openings retailers announced this year add about 28.6 million more square feet than the closings they announced, per Coresight Research. By store count it is nearly a wash: through July, retailers announced 3,255 openings and 3,399 closings, per Coresight's July tracker as reported by CRE Daily, after closings outran openings by 1,778 over the same stretch last year. The difference is the size of the boxes. The new stores averaged nearly twice the size of the ones closing, about 63 million square feet coming in against 36.9 million going out. IKEA, Publix, Bass Pro Shops, Meijer and Rural King led the large-format growth.

You can see the turnover in strip centers all over the country this month. Spirit Halloween says it is running more than 1,550 stores this season, and more than 350 of them are in former Joann, Big Lots and Party City stores alone, per a tally reported by The Close.

The other format winning is the drive-through. Chipotle opened its 1,500th Chipotlane on September 29 and plans 350 to 370 new restaurants this year, most of them with a pickup lane, per the company.

Here is what that looks like in Reno.

Reno already absorbed its closings

Nationally, landlords are still re-leasing the boxes that 2025's bankruptcies left behind. Reno has largely done that already. Our Q2 2026 market report estimates retail vacancy near 3.4%, a full percentage point lower than a year earlier, and credits the swing to the absorption of the 2025 big-box closings, including Big Lots and Joann.

Demand for bigger space came back with it. Dickson Commercial Group counted four leases larger than 6,000 SF in Washoe County in the first quarter, after none in the fourth quarter of 2025, per its quarterly report in Nevada Business Magazine. Our Q2 report put it plainly: "Large-format demand has returned, even if the product to satisfy it has not."

That last part is the constraint. About 101,000 SF of retail was under construction in Reno-Sparks at midyear, roughly one-quarter of one percent of inventory, per our Q2 report. Nationally, JLL reports retail construction starts at a 15-year low. Bigger stores need bigger boxes, and almost none are being built.

Where the bigger formats are landing in Reno

The Oddie District, Sparks. Foothill Partners turned a vacant Lowe's into a 232,000 SF maker, innovation, food and retail campus and held its official opening on October 1, per News 4, with 22 businesses already operating and more than 350 members in its makerspace. Our Q2 report called it the clearest example this cycle of a big box converted into a mixed-use draw rather than backfilled with another discounter. Project page.

The Boulevard Reno, Kietzke Lane. The biggest new proposal on our tracker. Reno Pro Soccer has filed to turn the former Jones West Ford dealership and a neighboring strip center, which includes a vacant former Joann, into a roughly $350 million district: a 6,000-seat stadium, a 301-room hotel and a 55,000 SF retail village around a public plaza, per Nevada Sports Net and News 4. The dealership buildings came down in April. The team is targeting a groundbreaking this fall, and the rezoning and permits still go through the city. Project page.

Firecreek Crossing, Kietzke Lane. The institutional version. Seattle-based Bridge33 Capital bought the 347,979 SF power center, home to Walmart and Reno's only Sam's Club, in November 2024, per Bridge33, and is renovating and backfilling it. West Coast Sourdough is planning its second Reno restaurant there, per This Is Reno. Project page.

McCarran Marketplace, a center our team leases. The small-format version. Paris Baguette is combining two suites into one 6,200 SF bakery-cafe, well above the chain's typical 3,000 to 4,000 SF, with a mid-October target, per the Reno Gazette-Journal. Project page.

Shayden Summit, South Reno. Existing centers are trading up their tenants, too. Anthropologie opened its first Reno store in the former Loft space on March 25, and Kendra Scott announced its opening in the former MAC Cosmetics space in early July, per our Q2 report and Northern Nevada Business Weekly.

The drive-through is the other winner, and pads are scarce

The fastest-growing formats chase pads as hard as boxes. In-N-Out's third local restaurant, a 3,890 SF drive-through at Plumb Lane and Kietzke Lane, has its building permit application in, per the Reno Gazette-Journal. Project page.

In Lemmon Valley, a private landowner has a building permit request in for a 19.6-acre plaza with 10 tenant spaces that could include drive-through restaurants, shops and a car wash, per 2News. The Regional Planning Commission approved its regional review in June because it projects more than 9,000 car trips a day. We added it to our tracker this week. Project page.

What it means for you

If you own an older box or a row of small suites. In Ian Cochran's view, the growth is coming from retailers that want more square feet in one place, and in Reno almost nothing new is being built for them. That makes your existing building the supply. Before you re-lease it as it stands, price the alternatives: combining suites, splitting a box, adding a drive-through pad, or a full repositioning like Firecreek or McCarran. Which one fits your site can change the value by more than any rent bump. Find out what your property is worth.

If you need 10,000 SF or more. The list is short, and most of it never reaches LoopNet. Your options are second-generation boxes, which lease quickly at 3.4% vacancy, and pre-leasing at projects still being built: Kiley Ranch Marketplace's first phase in Spanish Springs, Double R Marketplace in South Reno, and later The Boulevard's retail village. Start 12 months before you need the keys. Send Ian your requirements.

If you invest. Repositioned centers are trading. Bridge33 bought Firecreek in 2024, and Alturas Capital Partners paid $103 million for Legends at Sparks Marina in July with plans to change its tenant mix. In Ian Cochran's view, value-add boxes in infill locations are where local knowledge pays most, and they rarely reach the open market. See off-market opportunities.

Every project above is on our What's Coming to Reno tracker, which we update as they move. If one of them changes your plans, send Ian a note.