What Is Actually Changing in Retail Real Estate Right Now
A Different Kind of Tenant Walked In A few years ago, most of my conversations about retail space were about the same handful of tenant types: restaurants, salons, fitness studios, a few national brands filling anchor boxes. That is still most of my business. But somewhere in the middle of all that, I started doing […]
How a Shopping Center Deal Actually Gets Underwritten
What Underwriting Really Means People hear “underwriting” and picture a spreadsheet. That’s part of it, but it’s the smaller part. Underwriting a shopping center is really the process of deciding whether a property’s story matches its price. The spreadsheet just records the conclusion. Before I open a model, I want to know why the center […]
Why a Fully Leased Shopping Center Is Not Always the Safer Buy
The Number Everyone Looks at First Ask most buyers what makes a shopping center a good investment and the first word out of their mouth is “occupancy.” A center at 100 percent leased feels safe. A center at 70 percent feels risky. That instinct is not wrong exactly, but it is incomplete, and treating occupancy […]
Stabilized or Value-Add: The Choice Behind Every Shopping Center I Look At
The Question Every Deal Forces You to Answer Every time I look at a shopping center, I end up asking the same question before I get anywhere near a number. Do I want this property fully leased and humming along, or do I want it messy, with vacancy, deferred maintenance, and a reason the seller […]