Feature Photo: View of the San Antonio Riverwalk. Image: iStock.
Posted: 8-24-2025
San Antonio (Bexar County) — For the first time in U.S. history, all of the country’s top retail construction markets are concentrated in a single state: Texas.
The state’s rapid population growth, strong inbound migration, and business-friendly climate have fueled an unprecedented wave of retail development, even as construction elsewhere in the nation remains at historically low levels.
According to a report by Colliers, while only 6 million square feet of retail space was delivered nationwide in Q2 2025, Texas alone accounts for nearly one-third of all first-generation retail space currently under construction in the United States. The state now leads in both scale and intensity of retail construction, with more than 17 million square feet underway as of early 2025.
The commercial real estate news website revealed the following about the major metros in the state:
Austin – Austin leads in construction intensity, with 2.8% of inventory under development. Years of underbuilding left the city with the tightest retail market in Texas (97.1% occupancy), and today’s surge represents a long-overdue response to rapid growth as it cements its role as a national tech hub.
Dallas-Fort Worth – DFW leads the nation in total retail space under construction with 7.2 million square feet in the pipeline. The metro’s scale, population growth, and economic strength have transformed it into a retail powerhouse rivaling coastal markets.
Houston – Houston is adding 3.6 million square feet of new retail space, driven by booming suburban housing, a thriving culinary scene, and the dominance of grocery anchors like H-E-B. Strong absorption and steady vacancy rates highlight the metro’s resilience.
San Antonio – Once the most conservative of Texas’s big metros, San Antonio now has 1.7 million square feet under construction, the highest in years. With 96.3% occupancy and strong in-migration, the market is gaining momentum as part of the state’s broader retail expansion.
Together, these four metros illustrate how Texas has emerged as the nation’s retail construction leader — not through isolated growth, but through a statewide transformation that reflects the state’s economic strength, population boom and ability to sustain large-scale development.
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