It’s time to revisit another prediction I made last year in my blog post Commercial Constructions Trends to Watch in 2010 — Outside the Big Box. According to my blog, I said in 2010 we should “Expect to see new innovation in store concepts, especially when it comes to capitalizing on vacated commercial space in prime locations…In 2010, we should see more creative re-use of empty commercial space…”

As for grading myself on that commercial construction trend, I would like to borrow a page from President Obama and say “incomplete.”

The big shopping center landlords and office building owners aren’t going to release any funds until a deal is signed. Meanwhile, tenants are asking for more concessions, such as co-tenancy clauses and included commercial construction work like full store fronts, bathrooms and full HVAC systems. Bottom line, landlords are forced to realize their threshold for pain, which means all deals are taking longer to get done.

But that doesn’t mean we aren’t seeing interesting retail construction projects or innovative commercial construction retrofits, like the 23 up-and-coming new-store concepts as noted by Retail Traffic. Some are big and ambitious, while others are more subtle.

On the home front, our client New Zealand jewelry retailer Michael Hill is giving shopping center construction a shot in the arm by acquiring a handful of shuttered Whitehall Jewelers. The end result is new, renovated retail space that is clean and modern with dark millwork and flooring accented by horizontal lines of jewelry cases that pop with strategic lighting. It’s taking the mall jewelry store concept to a sophisticated new level.

And edgy clothing retailer AllSaints is taking advantage of vacated vertical shopping centers to transform common shopping center space into usable retail space. At 700 N. Michigan Ave., aka the once-bustling eight-story Chicago Place shopping mall, we’re transforming what was the Michigan Avenue entrance of the mall into the formal entrance of AllSaints. Chicago Place also had an eight-story atrium as the core of this vertical shopping mall, which we are now filling in on the second floor to give AllSaints more ground floor ceiling space.

There also is definitely something in the water with baby/children-focused retailers. First, there is WONDER!, the new children’s retail concept store opening in Deerfield, Ill. Second, we’ve seen a tremendous increase in retail construction bid work for Buy Buy Baby and Babies R Us. And third, we hear there is a major baby/maternity retailer looking to launch a new concept store on Michigan Avenue.

And while I haven’t heard anything…yet, it certainly would make sense for Ultimate Electronics, a Denver-based electronics retailer, and HH Gregg, an Indianapolis-based appliance and electronics retailer, to take advantage of prime available retail space at great pricing (courtesy of the vacated Circuit City and Linens ‘n Things stores) to expand their presence by entering new markets.

So far, I’ve given myself a B and an “incomplete” in revisiting two of my five commercial construction trends for 2010. This is looking eerily similar to my grade school report card.

What new innovative retail concepts or creative re-use of commercial space have you seen recently?

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