The incredible strength of commercial real estate in the first 6 months of the year certainly wasn&#x27t a blip and is a part of a growing trend, with new investment in the third quarter already hitting some pretty impressive dollar amounts for real estate investments. Retailers keep on moving to Canada and are now choosing Alberta as their main focus. We&#x27ve all heard about the coming invasion of Target stores and now Nordstrom has announced its first store opening in Alberta with more to follow in the next 3 years. However, while Nordstrom plans 4 major showcase stores it has also suggested it to is adopting a new trend with plans for 12 to 15 smaller €˜Racks&#x27 stores in Canada which are perhaps more likely to be seen in strip malls than in super malls. It won&#x27t be a surprise if one of these is in Edmonton. This is a quickly growing international trend, perhaps most notably forwarded by technology retailer Best Buy. Best Buy, famous for its huge retail centers has now been diversifying into more Best Buy mobile stores located in local shopping plazas. Edmonton already has one and hundreds more are being planned throughout North America. It is a model which helps retailers maximize same store sales and profit margins and what is good for retailers is good for landlords and real estate investors. If growth prospects and consumer spending figures weren&#x27t already great a recent retail report from credit card giant Moneris reveals further increases in retail spending during the second quarter of 2012, with Alberta beating out the rest of the country with almost double the growth at 8.35% more dollars spent, and we haven&#x27t even hit holiday shopping season yet.