Posted by AnthonyK on January 03, 2011 at 13:12:28:
I am familiar with their site. They also have a leasing department and was wondering if it was worth it? Do they get results?
Need Allot of help - Posted by AnthonyK
Posted by AnthonyK on December 31, 2010 at 10:58:03:
Hi everyone,
Great board! I need some help with a strip mall that I have
and I was hoping I could get some advice. Some background is
that the plaza is roughly 50,000sf and is located at the
marque corner of the town. So it has great visibility.
Problem I am having is knowing how to get quality tenants
which I know is a problem everywhere. But we have had some
bad luck as well as made some bad decisions. Anyway I am
starting to get desperate. I have signes at the empty
spaces, an ad in loopnet, have tried local papers, postcards
to local businesses, e-mails via realtytrac, brokers and
nothing works. I hardly get any responses. Another idea is I
have is trying to find qualified business people that I can
build out a store for such as subway or another chain.
Plenty of risk for me but is it riskier than watching the
place die a slow death? Any advice or toughts?
Re: Need Allot of help - Posted by ray@lcorn
Posted by ray@lcorn on December 31, 2010 at 14:17:57:
Anthony,
First, don’t hit the panic button. This is the worst time of year for retail tenant recruitment. Most retailers are oriented toward making moves closer to spring. They’ll start looking around the end of February, early March. If you’re in the snowbelt it may be a bit later than that depending on how the winter goes weather-wise. We suspend all classified ads in early November and don’t start again until the first of Feb.
You’re doing most of the right things. The most effective recruitment tool is still site signage. We make a point to ask prospects when they call how they found us and site signage still produces over 50% of the calls. However, this will be true mainly for local businesses. The national and regional chains require different tactics (more below).
Next (for us) is our website, which we drive traffic to by using online listings, newspaper classifieds, and printing the web address on every piece of marketing collateral we use (e.g. brochures, signs, giveaway trinkets, etc.). It is important to all marketing efforts to have a quality brochure made for the center, both in print copy and pdf file that can be emailed, and downloaded from a website, including the online listings. This can be prepared by a printing company, or DIY with Adobe’s brochure templates, also the templates for MS Word.
A word about the for-lease side of Loopnet and the other listing sites… the organic traffic comes from brokers and corporate real estate reps. Very few (if any) of potential tenants have ever heard of it, but the listings come up on the search engines and it’s very common to get a tenant contact from our website that originated on Loopnet.
Also, there are several more sites where the space can be listed?
- PropertyLine.com (free basic listings)
- Commercial Investment Multiple Listing Service (www.cimls.com; free basic listings)
- CoStar Group (www.CoStar.com; free basic listings)
- CityFeet.com (paid listings, starting at $79 mo.; circulated via 200+ partner sites, mainly online newspaper classifieds)
Before using any of the online listing sites think through how to present the property and how to capture leads. Here is where I believe it is critical to have a property website, even if it’s just a single page with maybe a picture, map and layout. In the online listings we include a downloadable pdf brochure that drives follow-up traffic to our website where more detailed information (e.g. demographics, area facts and figures, existing tenants, layout, pricing, etc.) is provided via pdf. We capture contact info (name, email and phone number only) in return for the download.
Next, do not overlook the value of personal contact. This is and always will be a networking business and the key is exposure through as many people as possible. On a local level, join and attend the local chamber of commerce, professional organizations and civic club meetings. These organizations are where you are most likely to be directly introduced to local business owners. I consider their dues the fee for a license to hunt for prospects for my business. Take your brochure to the meetings and hand them out. Put it in the organization?s newsletter. Host a catered mixer for business owners, maybe a free lunch for local real estate agents. In short, take every opportunity you can get to promote the property on a personal level.
On a regional and national level, seriously consider joining the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) (www.icsc.org). It is somewhat expensive, but in most cases less than one month?s rent from a tenant. If you sign one lease it?s paid for itself, eh? For contact with the national and regional retailers this is an invaluable resource. They hold regional dealmaking meetings all over the country on a regular basis and it is the best place I?ve found to interact directly with the retailer?s real estate personnel. Many will hand out a list of cities they are interested in, their location criteria, build-out footprint and a wealth of other info. Some will even have a list of other retailers they like to co-locate with. For example, tops on Dollar Tree?s list are Shoe Show, Sally Beauty and Cato. Again you need to be prepared with brochure, demographics, maps and tenant mix info to put in their hands.
Next, here?s one that owners rarely do, and one of the easiest and most productive. Ask your existing tenants if they do a lot of business with other businesses that would benefit from being close to them, or if they know of other businesses that may be looking to expand or move. Offer incentives such as a free months rent for a successful referral. Also ask them for testimonials about how well their business does in your center and print the quote on your collateral. Referrals and testimonials are the most powerful marketing tool there is.
Lastly, if there is a good commercial real estate brokerage firm (preferably one with a national affiliation) in town consider signing a non-exclusive listing just to be sure you get it into the brokerage community. I would not sign an exclusive listing agreement unless they have a marketing plan that includes all the above, plus what you?re already doing, and bring some added value to the table that creates additional exposure and effort. In my experience, sadly, no broker has ever met that test.
If you spend the next six weeks developing all of the above, by spring you will be locked and loaded when the calls start coming, and unless the center has critical problems, you?ll get leases done by summer.
ray
p.s. send or post your Loopnet listing number and I?ll take a look and give you my comments.
p.p.s. all references to websites and organizations above are informational only. I receive no compensation of any kind from any of the vendors or organizations mentioned.
Re: Need Allot of help - Posted by AnthonyK
Posted by AnthonyK on January 03, 2011 at 11:28:08:
Ray, thaks so much for such a thoughtful reply! Happy New Year BTW!!
I am having my son help me with a website. Great suggestion and something I have been thinking of doing for a while. Any suggestions on content and do you have an example you could provide? I did make a flyer that I mailed out but I can expand that to include a brochure. Another good suggestion.
We have gotten some hits on loopnet but nothing major. We actually did get a tenant to sign a lease from our ad so at least it paid off somewhat. My loopnet ID 16815679, any suggestions would be appreciated. I have my listing on Costar but have had absolutely no luck at all with it. It’s free so no big deal and I will try the others you suggest that are free.
I agree about the value of personal contact. Unfortunately I am 90 minutes from the plaza and it will be hard to join their meetings. I dd know the president of the chamber of commerce but I have not gotten any help from him, even in the form of suggestions. I have also tried to entice my current tenants to get their business friends to come in and they would get free rent but no takers.
as I mentioned the plaza is at a marque corner but the one stigma we are trying to overcome is that the neighborhood is not great. It’s a preception but perception is reality. Working in Queens, NY in my youth I can’t fathom anyone thinks this neighborhood is bad but it is what it is. We also need to update the placa a little but in this economy and having some trouble with vacancy we have put it on hold. Thanks again for the response.
- PropertyLine.com (free basic listings)
- Commercial Investment Multiple Listing Service (www.cimls.com; free basic listings)
- CoStar Group (www.CoStar.com; free basic listings)
- CityFeet.com (paid listings, starting at $79 mo.; circulated via 200+ partner sites, mainly online newspaper classifieds)
Before using any of the online listing sites think through how to present the property and how to capture leads. Here is where I believe it is critical to have a property website, even if it’s just a single page with maybe a picture, map and layout. In the online listings we include a downloadable pdf brochure that drives follow-up traffic to our website where more detailed information (e.g. demographics, area facts and figures, existing tenants, layout, pricing, etc.) is provided via pdf. We capture contact info (name, email and phone number only) in return for the download.
Next, do not overlook the value of personal contact. This is and always will be a networking business and the key is exposure through as many people as possible. On a local level, join and attend the local chamber of commerce, professional organizations and civic club meetings. These organizations are where you are most likely to be directly introduced to local business owners. I consider their dues the fee for a license to hunt for prospects for my business. Take your brochure to the meetings and hand them out. Put it in the organization?s newsletter. Host a catered mixer for business owners, maybe a free lunch for local real estate agents. In short, take every opportunity you can get to promote the property on a personal level.
On a regional and national level, seriously consider joining the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) (www.icsc.org). It is somewhat expensive, but in most cases less than one month?s rent from a tenant. If you sign one lease it?s paid for itself, eh? For contact with the national and regional retailers this is an invaluable resource. They hold regional dealmaking meetings all over the country on a regular basis and it is the best place I?ve found to interact directly with the retailer?s real estate personnel. Many will hand out a list of cities they are interested in, their location criteria, build-out footprint and a wealth of other info. Some will even have a list of other retailers they like to co-locate with. For example, tops on Dollar Tree?s list are Shoe Show, Sally Beauty and Cato. Again you need to be prepared with brochure, demographics, maps and tenant mix info to put in their hands.
Next, here?s one that owners rarely do, and one of the easiest and most productive. Ask your existing tenants if they do a lot of business with other businesses that would benefit from being close to them, or if they know of other businesses that may be looking to expand or move. Offer incentives such as a free months rent for a successful referral. Also ask them for testimonials about how well their business does in your center and print the quote on your collateral. Referrals and testimonials are the most powerful marketing tool there is.
Lastly, if there is a good commercial real estate brokerage firm (preferably one with a national affiliation) in town consider signing a non-exclusive listing just to be sure you get it into the brokerage community. I would not sign an exclusive listing agreement unless they have a marketing plan that includes all the above, plus what you?re already doing, and bring some added value to the table that creates additional exposure and effort. In my experience, sadly, no broker has ever met that test.
If you spend the next six weeks developing all of the above, by spring you will be locked and loaded when the calls start coming, and unless the center has critical problems, you?ll get leases done by summer.
ray
p.s. send or post your Loopnet listing number and I?ll take a look and give you my comments.
p.p.s. all references to websites and organizations above are informational only. I receive no compensation of any kind from any of the vendors or organizations mentioned.
One more site - Posted by ray@lcorn
Posted by ray@lcorn on December 31, 2010 at 14:50:05:
I left out one of the oldest and most active websites, DealMakers.net. They have free listings, several forums, and email list-serves by property type. They attend almost every ICSC meeting in the country with a booth and their print magazine. Definitely one of the most respected sources for retail leasing in the country.
ray