About Lisa Palmer
Lisa Palmer, president and CEO of Regency Centers, discussed the resilience of grocery-anchored shopping centers in a June 2026 video interview at Nareit’s REITweek conference. She stated that these centers continue to outperform because they meet everyday consumer needs with convenience, value, and essential services, and noted that demand remains broad-based, led by food and beverage, with strength also in service, fitness, and medical tenants. Palmer said the pandemic provided a renewed appreciation for physical locations among both retailers and consumers, adding that online and physical retail are complementary, not competitive. She reported that Regency has over $600 million in development and redevelopment currently in process, with plans for another $1 billion over the next three years, and that returns on development are greater than those from acquisitions.
On the company’s Q4 2025 earnings call in February 2026, Palmer highlighted Regency’s success in 2025, attributing it to the quality of its grocery-anchored shopping centers, its operating and investment platforms, and its team. She noted that tenant health indicators, including accounts receivable and foot traffic, were strong, and that the company was planning for a historically average year in 2026. Palmer emphasized that Regency is well positioned due to the essential nature of its merchants and the convenience and value its centers provide, and expressed encouragement that Amazon’s Whole Foods expansion signaled a continued commitment to physical stores.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Lisa Palmer's recent appearances.
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✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Lisa Palmer0:00
The pandemic provided two things: a renewed appreciation from both the retailers and from and for the consumers of physical locations. So, consumers realized that they like to shop. You can buy anything online, but shopping is an experience and they like to shop. And then the retailers also have a renewed appreciation that the most profitable way for customer acquisition, customer retention, and for the retailers to get their goods to the consumers is to have the consumer come into the store.
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Diana0:28
I'm here today with Lisa Palmer, president and CEO of Regency Centers Corporation. Lisa, thanks so much for sitting down with me.
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Lisa Palmer0:35
Thank you for having me, Diana. It's always a pleasure to be here.
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Diana0:38
Grocery-anchored centers have proven resilient even in uncertain economic conditions. What makes this format continue to outperform and where are you seeing the most tenant demand today?
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Lisa Palmer0:49
Grocery-anchored shopping centers serve the daily needs and offer service, convenience, value for consumers within the trade areas. So, through all economic cycles, the consumers are shopping at their local neighborhood and community centers. We are seeing demand strong across all uses. Food and beverage is always the strongest. People like to go out to eat. And we also see service, fitness, and medical uses. There has been limited new supply in our sector really coming out of the global financial crisis. So, for over 15 years and as a result of that, there is limited space available for these tenants and it's really fueling positive fundamentals in our sector.
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Diana1:34
And how are retailers thinking differently about physical store locations as consumer behavior and omni-channel strategies continue to evolve?
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Lisa Palmer1:42
I have said often, coming out of the pandemic, the pandemic provided two things: a renewed appreciation from both the retailers and from and for the consumers of physical locations. So, consumers realized that they like to shop. You can buy anything online, but shopping is an experience and they like to shop. And then the retailers also have a renewed appreciation that the most profitable way for customer acquisition, customer retention, and for the retailers to get their goods to the consumers is to have the consumer come into the store. So, online, e-commerce, and a physical location are complementary, not competitive. And retailers absolutely know that they must have both. The physical location is truly the last mile for the consumer.
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Diana2:29
Regency has a strong track record in redevelopment. How is your current pipeline shaping up and what kinds of returns are you targeting in today's cost environment?
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Lisa Palmer2:38
Development and redevelopment, especially ground-up development, is a key differentiator for Regency. We have over $600 million currently in process and we have started over $300 million each of the past 2 years and expect to do another $1 billion over the next 3 years. And we love development because of the returns. They are greater than acquisitions. So the acquisition environment is really competitive and challenging. In the development and redevelopment, you are either doing ground-up, so you're creating a new shopping center at returns that are 150 basis points to 200 basis points greater than an acquisition. And for a redevelopment, you're reinvesting back into the assets that we know so well and know what brings that success, and the returns are much greater than what we generate from acquisitions.
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Diana3:28
And finally, looking ahead over the next several quarters, what are the key indicators you're watching most closely for the retail environment?
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Lisa Palmer3:35
I'd go back to the first question with regards to the grocery-anchored shopping sector. So, the grocery-anchored shopping center sector really is resilient through economic cycles. We do track metrics to ensure that we're going to continue to see that growth. We look at foot traffic, so are our shoppers visiting our centers at the same rate. Foot traffic is up year over year by approximately 2%. We also look at our tenant health and are they paying their rent on time? What do the accounts receivables look like? We look at tenant sales. We have great relationships with our tenants and how are they actually performing? We also do monitor consumer sentiment, but again, because of the property type in which we operate, the trade areas in which we operate does tend to be more resilient. We're really optimistic about the future and the health of our sector.
