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Retail Tragedy and Triumph

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Prescott retail commercial real estateNo, the dark moments of 2008 are not yet behind us. The Prescott and Prescott Valley, Arizona retail markets appear to be booming…emphasis on “appear.”

Looks can be, and often are, deceiving. Our local retail shopping centers we may be repeating history by overbuilding in a flat market that cannot sustain the economic demands of retailers.

Hearing the Giant Sucking Sound

Prescott and Prescott Valley are now two distinct retail markets with minimal consumer crossover. Frontier Village was Yavapai County’s first major retail mall. Prior to its development consumers shopped at what was then called “Ponderosa Plaza” located on Gail Gardner Way between Willow Creek Road and Iron Springs Road. At this point in retail history, Prescott Valley was still in a state of retail infancy.

As a result of the housing boom [Read more…] about Retail Tragedy and Triumph

Outside the Box Market Thinking

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Think Outside the BoxMarket thinking is critical to commercial property owners. Thinking small is, well, putting it bluntly, an old paradigm and counter productive in today’s big CRE world.

Network largess is now a central key to lease marketing. Shrinking your exposure is deadly, while opening the marketing floodgates encourages multiple tributaries leading to more tenant activity, more LOIs and more executed leases.

In too many cases property owners have gotten twisted up in the pretzel of narrow representation, carrying the concept of going solo to new detrimental heights.

Learning over Lunch

A few years ago I met with a southern California owner at the Biltmore in Phoenix, Arizona who had invited me to lunch discuss and consider marketing his retail properties in cooperation with more than one broker each having and “exclusive” right to lease agreement.

Initially, the concept short circuited my concept of representation but as I listened to this seasoned owner my thinking began to change. Of course the so called “exclusive” was actually a modified arrangement where more than one listing broker consented to step aside in the event another procured an executed lease. Yes, the devil, as always, was in the listing agreement details and convincing multiple brokers to share a so-called “exclusive” listing seemed more than challenging.

The conversation broadened my thinking and opened me up to new representation blueprints that can help owners and add possibilities to a broker’s inventory.

The notion of broadening exposure in this way included many brokers working on the same property rather than simply one. The model began to have some appeal in an overbuilt market where owners require more, not less, tenant exposure and leasing opportunities.

The Big, Big, Big CRE World

With the advent of websites, blogs, YouTube channels with video sharing permissions, LoopNet, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and the myriad of other avenues available to owners, it’s my opinion that the power of the multiplier is already at work…and, therefore, why not harness this power?
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The Art of “Shaping the Deal” – Kid Style

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When Donald Trump wrote “The Art of the Deal” he became an industry authority figure for knowing or, at least claiming to know, how to make deals…deals that work.

Has anything changed since Trump wrote his 1988 best seller? Yes, a lot has changed. The fundamentals of deal making have not changed and perhaps they never will.

Making deals is one thing…now, however, the renewed skill that is most in demand is how to shape the deals we are making.

Due to today’s unique economic times, I’m discovering there is a big difference between securing signatures and shaping a deal for long term performance.

In fact, shaping the deal may be the requisite skill now in most demand because there are fewer deals to be done and the deals that are getting done require more perseverance and targeted thinking.

Negotiating Breakfast with My Daughter

Almost every day, we are all negotiating something. I did it this morning with my 9-year-old daughter. We negotiated about her breakfast. She wanted chocolate donuts, not one, but two! Once we formulated the premise for the sign-off, i.e., what each side wanted, we then had the core of the deal.

My position was clear. “You cannot have donuts for breakfast.” Her position was, “Donuts is the only way to make this deal work.”
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Sun Bell Plaza – Gateway Properties

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Bell Road in west Phoenix is one of the area’s busiest corridors. It connects traffic from the metro market and the 101 Loop to the vast retirement Mecca of Sun City, Sun City West and Sun City Grand, Arizona.

When Max Taylor and Company, LLC entered the market with its acquisition of Sun Bell Plaza, Bell Road was two lanes.

Sun Bell Plaza was the premiere gateway to Del Webb’s Sun City and there were few retail strip centers along the corridor, much less the now famed Arrowhead Mall with its renown mash-up of surrounding retail properties that make Bell Road a magnet for shoppers, Spring baseball and concert enthusiasts.

Sun Bell Plaza

Sun Bell Plaza, located at 94th Avenue and West Bell Road in Sun City, Arizona is an example of what I call a “Gateway Retail Center” as it straddles both sides of the main corridor (north and south) at the very entrance to Del Webb’s Sun City retirement community.
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Road Kill: Tenant Trough, Part 1

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Driving gives me an opportunity to think about what I am doing, some of the challenges we are facing in the buisness and how my clients can weather what I call “The Tenant Trough.” Rather than simply tool down the long and winding road, I have decided to utilize my drive times by engaging in a little Commercial Real Estate Road Kill.

The following video was shot on a recent drive to Phoenix and is the first of what I hope will be a regular feature entitled CRE Road Kill. In this installment, I am addressing what I call the Tenant Trough, what it is the problems it creates for owners. In Part 2 I will talk about solutions…stay tuned.

Merriam-Webster defines “trough” as follows:

  • a long and narrow or shallow channel or depression (as between waves);
  • the minimum point of a complete cycle of a periodic function;
  • the low point in a business cycle

Donald Teel is a Senior Associate and Principal with Arizona Commercial, an Arizona commercial real estate brokerage and property management firm, headquartered in Prescott, Arizona. Need more information? Please call 1-877-777-9100 or, if you prefer, you may email Donald Teel

Battle of the Bulge – Buying Down the Bloat

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bloatedWant to know what I think? There is not going to be some cataclysmic, spin-on-a-dime turn-around for small and medium commercial real estate owners. This time, like no other time, we are in a long haul climb up the cliff face of mount cash-flow.

We are in a kind of real estate battle of the bulge. We have too much space (the bulge) and not enough users to quickly alleviate the bloat of vacancies. It is true, we have seen some spurts and sputters, which have caused some to optimistically think and even say, “The recession is over, we’re coming out of it.”

Everything I read, hear, view and all of my experiences at the street level are telling me the battle of the bulge is not over and the trick of trade for survivors is the ability to buy cash flow and to buy it now. Yes, you heard it correctly. Owners need to change their posture and assume a position of cash flow deal makers.
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Another Very Simple Leasing Tip

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After a few years in the business, things start looking the same. Property ads read the same…photos seem similar…on and on it goes. Of late, owners have been looking for ways to make their property stand out from the crowd as unique. Here’s another very simple leasing tip for owners of just about any size property of any variety.

Donald Teel is a Senior Associate with Arizona Commercial, an Arizona commercial brokerage and property management firm. Need more information? Please call 1-877-777-9100 or, if you prefer, you may email Donald Teel

Terminatio Simulatio Velociter

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richard_boone_Paladin - 175My first Broker, the Del Webb Corporation, was big on fast failure. The principle and skill of what I now call Terminatio Simulatio Velociter was drilled into the head of each fledgling Sales Counselor whose job it was to meet, greet and qualify prospects who visited the Sales Pavilion in Sun City West.

Now, some nearly 25 years hence, I truly do recognize the importance of “sorting” and the notion of elimination has become more and more a part of representing my commercial real estate clients effectively.

Of late, and driven by market conditions, there has emerged a new brand of bottom-feeding. It’s a concept I call “LOI Shopping” or, maybe “Networking the Deal” for better terms.

There is no doubt in my mind that this carp-like behavior among prospective tenants is a product of too much inventory and the desire of often marginal tenants to continue their vain attempts to shrink or even collapse the pricing envelope.
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Consumer Shopping Profile = New Marketing Approaches

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FaceProfile - 200Retail shopping center owners, tenants and consumers are experiencing an unprecedented economic crunch. In short, all three are drifting in the same boat.

The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), publishes a “Shopping Habits Report” in the first quarter following the end of a calendar year.

As a retail leasing specialist, I digested the entire 2009 report, subtitled, How the Recession has Impacted Consumer Shopping Habits, and discovered that indeed center owners need to be on top of the consumer game.

The “2009 Shopping Habits Report” contains invaluable information about the future consumer trends that will impact center owners, whether large or small in size.

You can read the report for yourself and draw your own conclusions. However, three things stuck out to me in the report:

  • 58% of consumers believe their income will stay the same or become significantly less in 2010
  • Most consumers have and will continue to throttle their discretionary spending through 2010
  • Strip centers and “Lifestyle Centers” attract the highest frequency of repeat traffic

For those of you who are my clients, I want to briefly focus on the strip center/lifestyle traffic models, which run in the 70-75% repeat traffic level. In 2010 and 2011, my Company, is seizing on the concept of “life-styling” centers that have a higher than normal tenant mix by creating “Center Websites” that serve as a marketing destination point for Broker and tenant inquiries and present a center personality to the viewers.
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Freddie’s Back and He’s Your Tenant!

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freddie krueger 200Owning commercial investment real estate requires a lot of hard work, discipline and knowledge in order to create a successful investment.

Tenants come in two forms, good tenants and not-so-good (okay, go ahead and say it, “bad”) tenants. There seems to be no middle ground.

Tenants are capable of odd if not bizarre behavior and often they succumb to the same economic pressures impacting owners and landlords. Pressure can create abnormal responses in any person but when those pressures find their fundamental genesis in the economy, expect surprising tenant behavior.

Stories I have heard or read about lately make some tenants sound like Freddie Krueger…a bad Nightmare on Elm Street.

How to Handle the Next Nightmare. Whether on Elm Street or a strip mall in Atlanta, if you are a commercial owner, landlord, broker or property manager, you are going to eventually meet Freddie and have a nightmare tenant on your hands.

Dealing with Mr. Krueger begins with tenant screening and qualifying. If there was ever a precept that was violated by many owners during the market run-up from 2000-2006, it was qualifying tenants.

However, even after qualifying tenants economic and other factors can erode the performance of any tenant, creating desperation and a propensity to go sideways.

Owners can reduce but not totally control the “Freddie effect” by bearing down on the up-front analysis of the tenant. Controlling a future nightmare on your street begins with qualifying the tenant but it does not end there…read on.

[Read more…] about Freddie’s Back and He’s Your Tenant!