The Stable Economy Favors Growth: The five year-long bull market in the United States gives impetus to the notion that commercial real estate (CRE) offers strong investment advantages – especially in markets where supply is limited and the book value of projects has been growing incrementally.  In December, the Federal Reserve encouraged CRE investors with predictions of long-term stability in the markets and very limited inflation. Employment gains across the country also augur good things for CRE as demand for office (principally creative office) has grown apace.

 Urbanization and The Millennial/Boomer Effect: An explosion of milennials into the workforce and their preference for inner city life has fueled expanded development for office, residential and retail in core markets across the country. Added to this trend, a stream of boomers leaving suburbia behind for “downsized” urban dwellings, has strengthened and made more competitive the growth of city neighborhoods that offer a range of amenities and transportation options.  This demographic shift is predicted to continue into the next decade or more – and will reward investors and developers who can leverage demand with appealing and well-priced supply.

Ecommerce Shaping Retail Development: The growing impact of ecommerce on bricks and mortar stores will be felt even more strongly in 2016 and in the years ahead.  Shifting shopper preferences and space pressures in urban core markets will lead to an expanding palette of mini-shops (City Target) and quick trip store formats that cater to office workers with limited time and micro-unit residences.  At the same time, retailers will be investing ever more heavily in technology solutions that can compete with the convenience of ecommerce and experiential scenarios such as cocktail receptions, in-store fashion shows and pop up stores that make a shopping trip “fun and fierce.”

Increasing Foreign Investment in U.S. Real Estate: Despite some hiccups in the Chinese economy and the economic pressures felt by Europe because of the migrant crisis, foreign investment in U.S. real estate will remain strong. The passage of FIRPTA reform in December, 2015, has been a factor in expanding investment by foreign pension funds – including Canadian and Asian funds.  The Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) reported recently that its members expect 2016 to be a growth year.

 Core Market Appeal: Urban gateway markets (New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle as examples) will continue to feel strong demand for office and residential space.  This trend rests on demographics (see trend 2 above) and on limited options for development or redevelopment because of geographic boundaries and pre-existing density.  Developers with expertise in adaptive re-use of properties in key urban locations will fare well and are seen to be active in these high in-demand locations.

The post 2016 – The Year Of Emerging Commercial Real Estate Trends appeared first on PLACES.

No one shops alone. And that changes everything.

Harnessing the power of the mobile device, as a result, is going to be critical for shopping center marketing for the foreseeable future. Gone are the days when if you built a shopping center—and filled it with enough big brand retailers—people would come.

Mobile technology has created a new dimension in shopping. Every shopper today can use mobile technology to be immediately transported to the ubiquitous, packed shelves of Amazon, eBay and the ecommerce sites of all well-known retailers. Shoppers know, if they see a better deal online, they can order it on their smartphone and have it delivered to their door in two days. Brand or store loyalty is rarely part of the calculation, especially for the fastest (or largest) growing population of consumers – millennials.

Buying online is easy, and most shoppers are now convinced it’s safe. But it isn’t much of an experience. Sure you can have products delivered quickly and you can shop sales and read the reviews. You can do it all from your desk…but what fun is that?

A Live Experience

Savvy shopping center executives today realize that mobile technology and bricks and mortar complement each other and are exploring innovative ways to use mobile technologies to interact with customers and provide a unique, personalized experience customers can only enjoy in person.

At a minimum, each shopping center today has to have Wi-Fi that reaches every corner and charging stations where shoppers can sit close to something that engages them, like a Starbucks or a food court, while they charge their phones. And that’s just to get in the game. 

It’s Personal

Beacon technology is an innovative technique that provides shopping center marketers direct access to shoppers in their centers. Otherwise known as “Bluetooth Low Energy appliances,” beacons installed in shopping centers constantly broadcast radio signals to shoppers who have installed a beacon app on their iPhone or Android smartphones. Beacons then use geo positioning to establish the location of an individual shopper. Depending on the number and range of devices you install, beacon technology allows you to see shoppers coming from your parking lot or more than a mile away.

Not only can you see them coming, but combined with access to customer data, beacon technology also allows you to send customized messages. If shoppers haven’t been to your center in a while, for example, you can send them a message welcoming them back and point out sales in their favorite stores as well as special events and other opportunities that past data shows they might like.

Beacon technology can be very targeted. A customer approaching a cosmetic counter, for example, can receive a message from a beacon installed there offering information about specific products and special sales and services.

Because of their GPS capabilities, beacons can be used to track how customers move around a shopping center in the same way that e-commerce brands use mouse tracking, engagement analysis and other techniques to assess shopping habits.

Beacon Technology Do’s and Don’ts

Consumers need to opt in and install beacon technology on their smartphones; this means they can also opt out at any time. Your engagement with them, as a result, lives and dies on how vital the shopper considers your messages. If you are not sending something he or she sees as valuable, witty or personal, they are gone.

Do

Customers want to be acknowledged and facilitated. You need to be able to let Kimberly know about the latest sales at Anthropologie and, at the same time, direct Kimberly’s father to the nearest Starbucks or lounge area. Help them find what they want.

Don’t

Customers don’t want to be constantly pitched or manipulated. You have to understand your demographics in general and customer profiles in particular. Send Kimberly’s dad to Forever21 too many times and he will lose his enthusiasm for the service.

How May I Help You?

Because it knows a visitor’s location, beacon technology can also act like a virtual concierge for visitors. Instead of looking for a directory or stopping a security guard, beacon technology puts an interactive directory in the palm of their hands. A shopper only needs to look at her smartphone to find out how to get to a particular store, the most popular restaurants, or the nearest food court. And the starting point is always wherever she is currently standing.

Beacon technology can even be used to place orders in shopping center restaurants. This is an especially productive capability for urban shopping centers. The ability to pre-order meals reduces the time it takes to be served making lunch at the mall a more viable choice compared to street-level restaurants in town. It can even make time for some casual shopping or a service appointment before returning to work.

Scores of retailers, shopping centers, hoteliers and other customer-centric organizations have been experimenting with beacon technology and plan to ramp up their use in 2016. New, innovative uses of beacon technology are evolving at a rapid pace including the ability to schedule appointments, save shopping lists, even activate display lights for products as a customer approaches.

The emphasis on enhancing personal experience plays to the brick-and-mortar strength of shopping centers. For all their bells and whistles and ease of use, ecommerce sites can never compete with shopping centers for delivering a compelling in-person experience.

Instant Accountability—The customer is always right … and she has access to the Internet. 

Developing an effective mobile technology strategy requires a shift in approach for shopping center marketing. The focus needs to be on what customers want rather than what you have to sell.

Studies have indicated that a positive shopping experience contributes more to loyalty than just accomplishing a sale. And, not only is loyalty more lasting than the gratification of a single sale, but it has a way of propagating across social media as shoppers share their experiences with friends and family.

Inside the opportunity to use mobile technology to interact directly with customers is a high degree of accountability. With mobile technology and social media, there is no place to hide. If your restaurant serves a bad meal, or the salesperson in the Sunglass Hut is rude, people are going to know about it. While you are reaching out to the center’s visitors on the front end, you also have to have the capability on the back end to monitor what is being said about your brand online.

Social media has a life of its own. You can’t stop people from saying whatever they want about their experience at your shopping center, and you can’t safely ignore it either. Tech-aware shopping center owners are learning how to use social media to help them identify and respond to negative comments to change the online real-time conversation about their brand. 

The New Market Reality

The always on, always connected community of modern customers generates a tremendous amount of creative energy. It’s chaotic, spontaneous and unpredictable, and it defines the new market reality.

Individual customers can opt out of mobile technology and social media, but managers and owners of shopping centers and retail stores cannot. Participation in this brave new world is a competitive necessity. If you try to control it, you’re missing the point. A better option is to tap into the creative energy of the community of constantly connected customers and learn how to enjoy it. Whatever twists and turns it takes you on, you and your customers need to take this ride together.

The post Harnessing Mobile Technology to Enhance Customer Experience appeared first on PLACES.

The Due Diligence Handbook For Commercial Real Estate

There’s a huge problem in the commercial real estate business that nobody is talking about- DUE DILIGENCE.  The vast majority of investors, real estate brokers and commercial real estate professionals barely scratch the surface conducting their due diligence when purchasing commercial real estate investments.  Investors are taking unnecessary risks and throwing money away or making bad investments, by not properly performing due diligence.  Brokers are putting themselves at risk for potential litigation and missing an opportunity to help their clients as a true ally by learning these principles.  This handbook was created to give an overview of the due diligence process. It is written in a concise pragmatic fashion as a real due diligence tool; a “step-by-step system”; a “roadmap” to follow, and is not intended as a voluminous textbook on the subject. It’s based upon over 30 years of experience in the commercial real estate business and acquiring over 9 million square feet from private and institutional owners.

The Social Media Marketing Book
By Dan Zarrella

Are you looking to take advantage of social media for your business or organization? With easy-to-understand introductions to blogging, forums, opinion and review sites, and social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, this book will help you choose the best — and avoid the worst — of the social web’s unique marketing opportunities.

The Social Media Marketing Book guides you through the maze of communities, platforms, and social media tools so you can decide which ones to use, and how to use them most effectively. With an objective approach and clear, straightforward language, Dan Zarrella, aka “The Social Media & Marketing Scientist,” shows you how to plan and implement campaigns intelligently, and then measure results and track return on investment. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or new to the social web, this book will take you beyond the jargon to social media marketing mastery.

• Make sense of this complicated environment with the help of screenshots, graphs, and visual explanations
• Understand the history and culture of each social media type, including features, functionality, and protocols
• Get clear-cut explanations of the methods you need to trigger viral marketing successes
• Choose the technologies and marketing tactics most relevant to your campaign goals
• Learn how to set specific goals for your campaigns and evaluate them according to key performance indicators

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
By Malcom Gladwell

Defining that precise moment when a trend becomes a trend, Malcolm Gladwell probes the surface of everyday occurrences to reveal some surprising dynamics behind explosive social changes. He examines the power of word-of-mouth and explores how very small changes can directly affect popularity. Perceptive and imaginative, The Tipping Point is a groundbreaking book destined to overturn conventional thinking in business, sociological, and policy-making arenas.

Pop-Up Retail: How You Can Master This Global Marketing Phenomenon
By Christina Norsig

A celebrity in Hollywood.
A fashionista in SoHo.
An artist in Miami.
What do they have in common?

They are cashing in on the hottest trend in today’s marketplace – pop-up retail. Pop-ups are a booming business, turning up in once-empty spaces all across the retail landscape from city downtowns to suburban shopping malls. Filling the need for newness and excitement, pop-ups are emerging as a new source of passion and profit for the retailing industry.

This book takes you behind the scenes, deconstructs the phenomenon and provides a blueprint for those ready to get in and get popping.

Author Christina Norsig has lived all facets of the pop-up experience. She’s opened and run her own successful pop-up shops. She’s acted as ‘matchmaker,’ connecting interested merchants and willing property owners to make pop-up magic. And she’s a veteran speaker on the topic of pop-up retail, bringing her unique insight and vision to the business community. Through her experience and expertise, Norsig is the perfect mentor for a fledgling industry.

From her vantage point at the forefront of this emerging trend, Norsig takes the reader through the pop-up industry, detailing its history, successes, and pitfalls. Using examples and analysis, she helps us understand how we got from a retail landscape of bricks and clicks to quicks – and how this is only the beginning.

The post What the Industry Is Reading appeared first on PLACES.

Bauer Hockey

Known as the premier expert in the ice hockey equipment manufacturer market, Bauer Hockey will dip its pucks into the retail market. The company will open its second Own The Moment retail experience in Bloomington, MN in late fall of 2015.  The Bloomington Own The Moment retail experience will feature an indoor ice rink to provide a unique try-before-you-buy experience.

Bunulu

Bunulu is a specialty retail store concept crafted by Florida-based department store retailer Bealls Inc. and is scheduled to open Q4. Bunulu will cater to a younger shopper (both men and women) featuring active lifestyle apparel and accessories for coastal living. The brand’s website describes the concept as the “next generation of outdoor active lifestyle brands.”

Starbuck Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room

Starbucks Coffee Company is bringing out the sophisticated palate with its Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room, a 15,000 square foot flagship specializing in high-end coffees from around the world with openings in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The roaster is a café and tasting room allows customers to bring the experience home with its iBeacon technology, which gives coffee-drinkers roasting and brewing information via their smartphones.

The Range

A UK-based home and garden products store, The Range is planning to expand its home goodness with the opening of 45 new stores in the U.K. over the next three years.The Range is recognized for its unique variety with more than 65,000 quality products across 16 departments including; DIY, Homewares, Furniture, Lighting, Arts & Crafts and Garden.

Joe & the Juice

European luxury retailers are bringing their unique cache stateside. Joe & the Juice, a Denmark-based coffee, juice and sandwich shop, is capitalizing on Americans’ love for overseas brands and restaurants. Joe & the Juice will delight yanks with coffees, shakes, shots and sandwiches and the first tasters can try the libations in New York City. 

Yo! Sushi

Debuting in Sarasota, FL, Tampa, FL, Paramus, NJ and Short Hills, NJ, this taste of Tokyo is a fresh take on the fast-food concept. Customers can enjoy Japanese-inspired food delivered directly to you on a unique conveyor belt. The cuisine is based on traditional Japanese dishes including sashimi, maki, hand rolls, gunkans, tempura, teriyaki, rice and noodle dishes, salads and desserts. Sushi-eaters can simply sit at the bar or in a booth and take plates from the conveyor belt. Plate colors reflect prices – seven colors, seven prices.

Leica

The iconic German company is delighting shoppers in New York City and Miami and plans to open 200 more stores by 2016. Designed for both novice and experienced photographers alike, Leica’s S2 demo gives photographers a hands-on experience with this groundbreaking camera system in a professional studio setting.

Dressbar

The mass-retailer, Dress Barn, brings a pop-up shop concept to Fifth Avenue. The NYC Dressbar pop-up is an edgier version of Dress Barn featuring a few high-profile designers collections, exclusive to Dressbar, and include LUXE by Carmen Marc Valvo, MiXT by Heidi Weisel, Lovely by Adrianna Papell and dbRSVP by the db Fashion Studio.

The post Retail Trailblazers – Creative, Outside-the-Box Retail Concepts for 2015 appeared first on PLACES.

As property owners and managers, we are living through an age of ever-increasing risk and ever-rising numbers of insurance claims.To keep our tenants and customers safe and our properties profitable, it’s critical to be proactive about identifying and remediating risks.

Remember that insurance pays only a portion of the costs associated with an accident, and what remains can be very expensive – and that’s before you get to the increase of your annual premium.  Even simple slip-and-fall accidents are costly; the average price to defend a slip-and-fall is $50,000 with a claim typically running at least $22,000 on top of that.

In any accident, there are a variety of hidden coststo the property which can range from four to seven times those covered by insurance.  Some hidden costs include reduced labor productivity, disrupted schedules, supervisory and administrative time, replacement of damaged material and equipment, and loss of customers.  Clearly, the goal is to avoid these kinds of losses, and being proactive is the key.

Risk management experts agree: “If you sit back and wait for an accident to happen or a claim to be filed, you’re already too late,” says Thomas N. Sternberg, Chairman and CEO of Assured SKCG, Inc., which provides risk management and insurance advisory services.“Reducing both the risk and frequency of accidents provides the best return on investment because it prevents injury to your business, your reputation and your customers.”

There are steps you can take to get a better handle on risk management: Create and enforce formal procedures, communicate clearly with both staff and tenants about risk management, and work more closely with law enforcement to prepare for the worst with emergency drills. And don’t forgetthe basic “blocking and tackling” of daily walk-throughs to identify items like curbs that need painting, sidewalks that need patching or lights that need replacing.

Although we can never entirely eliminate threats, we can learn to foresee and prevent a variety of incidents while minimizing the damage from those that do occur.  Madison Marquette has implemented a number of proactive strategies that have assisted the company in both minimizing claim-producing incidents and successfully defending ourselves against claims that were not preventable.  It’s important to note that these strategies all have one thing in common: They have a combination of consistency and common sense at their core.

Remember the Basics

The first essential task in a risk mitigation strategyis to identify and analyze your exposure. While most property owners or managers think they understand the everyday risks they face, assessments may not be done often, thoroughly or consistently enough to give them a complete picture.

At Madison Marquette, we created a standard property inspection and audit report that ourproperty managers must complete each month. It begins with a checklist of recommended policies that includes assigning someone to perform formal, documented property inspections andtake responsibility for following up on items that need repair.  Since simple observationscan prevent common area hazards that might otherwise be overlooked, the checklist requires regular inspections of things likerailings on decks and balconies to ensure they are adequate to prevent small children from squeezing through the openings.  And it draws attention to seemingly obvious risk factors such as whether floor mats and rugs are in good shape or whether walking and working areas are well lit and free of trip, slip and fall hazards. By simply documenting potential risks and presenting them as a checklist to be filled out, property managers stay alert to everyday problems that might otherwise fade into the background.

Once you have created a risk checklist, use it as a guide for a daily property walk to look for potential problems, then assign someone to resolve them. These potential problemscan be anything from a broken curb to faded markings on a crosswalk. While this might sound like common sense, it only works if you actually do it; the more disciplined and consistent you are, the more likely you are to prevent potential accidents.

At Madison Marquette, we then take this a step further with a quarterly “peer audit” in which an outsider – often someone from our corporate office – does the property walk alongside the team. This introducesa second set of eyes to problems the local staff has become accustomed to seeing every day.

Another important task is to prepare for known or foreseeable natural events that could put your tenants or their customers at risk. If you’re in a part of the country prone to hurricanes, for example, this might mean lining up enough plywood to board up your windows or procuring sandbags to prevent flooding. Further north, where ice and snow are issues, it might mean stockpiling sand or obtaining permission to use a neighboring property as a “snow farm,” a place to relocate snow piles that have grown too large for your parking lots.

Whatever contingencies you prepare for, make sure to create, update and distribute a “call tree” that identifies who will notify each of your tenants and ownersabout the ways a particular event is affecting your property, what you’re doing about it, and when they and their customers can get back to business as usual. A tip line is another way to get information to tenants using a voice recording about center hours and conditions in the event of an emergency. 

Communicate Clearly 

Clear communication may be the most important aspect of risk mitigation.  Offering clear instructions that are both descriptive and specific helps ensure that your staff knows exactly what to do to prevent incidents and gives you a measure of protection in the event a claim does arise.

For example, it’s difficult to misunderstand an email that says: “The 38-inch section of curbing outside door 23 to the food court must be replaced and painted yellow by May 2^nd.” This kind of communication effectively conveys the message, and an email like this would also be useful in court to demonstrate you understood the risk and took positive, timely steps to mitigate it. Remember that any emails or notes you write could potentially be used in legal proceedings, so consider how unverified information (“I heard someone almost broke their neck on that curb”) or opinions (“Someone is going to get run over in that dark garage!”) would sound in court. A sound rule: Communicate everything you need to get across to mitigate the risk and establish a record of your efforts. Then, stop.

Low Hanging Fruit

Even without a complete revamping of your risk management program, some relatively quick, easy and inexpensive steps can go a long way. The most common source of claims in shopping centers is still the all-too-familiar “slip and fall.” To reduce the risk to customers, tenants and yourself:

• Clearly mark any changes in the landscape, such as curbs, decorative islands, crosswalks and stairs. Regularly inspect these items on your property walks and repair them as needed.

• Train and retrain your staff on proper spill response: A staff member should always stay with the spill to warn bystanders away until the spill is removed. Posting “wet floor” signs is essential as well.

• Make it everyone’s job to remove trash and other potential hazards. Just as any email can be used as evidence in court, you don’t want a security camera to show a customer tripping over a fallen tree limb in a parking lot that a mall employee walked by moments before and ignored.

• Speaking of evidence, use your smartphone to snap pictures of your response to spills or other hazards, then store those photos where they can be easily located. In at least one recent case, photos of “wet floor” signs that had been posted around a rain puddle at an outdoor center earned a dismissal of a liability claim. 

Prepare for the Worst

For more uncommon threats, such as shootings or terrorism, preparation, practice and communication are key. While these risks aren’t comfortable to think about or practice for, this is another area wherebeing proactive counts.For example, Madison Marquettehas toll-free emergency contact numbers and emergency preparedness handbooks that we distribute to our tenants.And rather than annual meetings, weget together quarterly at most centers with local police and fire officialsto ensure our procedures are up to date.

In cooperation with local law enforcement, we also conduct drillsin which we practice evacuation proceduresfor unforeseen emergencies such as an “active shooter.” Despite holding the drill before business hours, we were originally concerned about the effect a parking lot full of police carsmight have on a property’s image. But after watching our staff calmly lock down an entire mall in less than 10 minuteswith the appropriate training and coaching, the confidence we have that we are prepared for such a crisis makes these drills more than worthwhile. 

An Ongoing Process

Every day brings new potential risks to a large public place such as a shopping center. Whether it’s an overnight storm that causes a roof to leak or fallen leaves that reduce traction on an outdoor walkway, it’s clear that risk management must be an ongoing process. Being proactive about risk management involves aseries of steps that include identifying and analyzing your risk exposure, examining and selecting the right techniques to mitigate those risks, implementing those techniques, monitoring the results, then beginning the cycle all over again. As a manager, I often say, “If we don’t inspect it, they won’t respect it.” In other words, senior management must take the time to follow up on the property inspection team to ensure items are managed and resolved.

Ignoring risk only guarantees greater losses over time. The more proactive, disciplined and clear you can be in your risk management efforts, the more you will protect the safety of your tenants and customers – and your profits – as a result.

The post Tips for Mitigating Risk: Time to Get Proactive appeared first on PLACES.

For advertisers, social media offers instant gratification. Consumers’ Twitter feeds make traditional network news coverage archaic before stories ever hit their Google Alerts. For a product or brand, the Internet creates a personalized presence, captivating consumers and delivering a loyal following, which ultimately translates into sales.

Why does this work? Social media influencers are candid and seem to genuinely like or dislike a brand, and they are happy to offera multitude of reasons why they do or don’t. This awareness-building, loyalty-inducing candor is the reason companies are seeking out social media influencer to support their brand or business and make that all-important impact on consumer spending habits.

Why Social Media Influencers Should Be On Your Radar

Anyone in marketing will tell you that your product or service is really only as good as its last recommendation. Whether it is a blogger, a YouTube celebrity or just a consumer who has a significant social media following, buy-in from a social media influencer can have an extremely positive chain reaction that can take a brand from being virtually unknown to being the most popular item in the Kardashians sisters’ handbag.

Brands looking to take their product to the next level of consumer awareness partner with social media influencers whose style, following and philosophy are aligned with a particular market. For example, a beauty brand that wants to increase its own following and sales or perhaps launch a new collection might collaborate with a top beauty blogger with traction among the brand’s targeted demographics to review the product and give tips on how to use it.

In most cases, the beauty company will send the blogger samples to try, offer interviews with spokespeople or even invite the blogger to attend press events. This style of working with social media influencers cultivates a relationship between the blogger and the brand, which advertisers hope will translate into a positive relationship between brand and consumer. At Pacific Place, a premier vertical urban shopping center in Seattle, the Madison Marquette marketing team designed a plan to engage and capture the attention of social media mavens, which was used to cultivate and nurture a relationship between the center and its customers. Pacific Place regularly engages with a well-known blogger, Sarah Butler, and invited her to do an Instagram takeover. Butler is a Seattle-based digital strategist and fashion stylist known for collaborating with a multitude of brands such as InStyle Magazine, Rebecca Minkoff, Sam Edelman, Bluefly, Free People, Piperlime, H&M, Everlane, and SAKS Fifth Avenue. During New York Fashion Week, Butler became the fashion eyes and ears for Pacific Place by taking over the center’s Instagram page. Butler posted images and trends to Pacific Place’s Instagram, so that the center’s customers were also able to experience a front row seat to the runways.

Create Consumer Conversation Via Re-posting 

Courting social media influencers to “like” a brand – and tell all of their followers why they should too – is only a small piece of this marketing strategy. Once a relationship is established between your business and a social media influencer, it is time to “pay it forward.” Social media influencers thrive on companies re-tweeting and re-postingtheir content. This demonstrates support for the influencer, who is also building a brand, and it bridges the gap between the influencer’s followers and your company. In the end, it is all about what the influencer says is “cool,” and if you align your brand with that level of coolness, your brand will become intertwine with content that is currently trending. Earlier this year, a social media influencer at Glen Eagle Square, an outdoor shopping destination in the Philadelphia suburbs, posted a photo of an Alex and Ani necklace she bought at one of the center’s boutiques. By employing a clever use of hashtags, the official Instagram page of Alex and Anire grammed the photo, culminating in over 13,000 likes. 

Uptick in Local, Organic Marketing 

Social media influencers are really the digital version of “word-of-mouth” marketing. Madison Marquette encourages their properties to create innovative social media promotions and partnerships to generate a local, organic presence in the community. Customers want to connect to brands, and by tapping into a local blogger and his or her following, social media can literally bring foot traffic to the property and retailer. For example, Christine Bibbo Herraka nycpretty was hired by SELF Magazine to attend the opening party for Athleta at Marketfair, an enclosed specialty center in Princeton, NJ, managed by Madison Marquette. Christine received an outfit and did an on location photo shoot. She posted to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter during the event, tagging MarketFair in every post, and driving like-minded customers to the center to celebrate the addition of the highly anticipated retailer.

Social media influencers are vital to the viral success of brands and retailers – they have substantial followings and a loud voice amongst consumers. A blogger has the uncanny ability to be an authority on anything she is writing about. Knowing these facts, brands are utilizing social media influencers to create added value for their consumer awareness strategies and sales goals. Incorporating the influencer into marketing campaigns will give you an insider’s view into what shapes the market and what drivesviral conversations.

Posts that strengthen a brand’s integrity aim to establish the product or business as a leader within its marketing sector and throughout the community in which it serves. Two examples where social media marketing garnered significant community attention are Pizza Meet at Main Street Garden in Dallas, Texas and InstaMeet in Austin, Texas.  For Pizza Meet, the number of likes on the #PizzaMeetDFW hashtag was 15,024 and the total number of followers of all participants was 194,690. The Austin InstaMeet recently engaged 132K, while its impressions were at 4.8 million.

The post The Role of Social Media Influencers appeared first on PLACES.

Not quite.

No one ever expects it to be that easy, but many are surprised at just how complex the transition can be. With new ownership—or even a new property management company—taking over operations, there area a myriad of details to consider ranging from dealing with current center employees and human resources arrangements to combing through piles of lease agreements and vendor contracts.

Of course, each transition has its own unique set of challenges, but following these six essential steps can help ensure a smooth transition to operating a profitable shopping center.

1. Do your due diligence. Begin to lay the groundwork for a smooth transition before the purchase by fully investigating the property’s condition, interviewing existing tenants, and examining the financial statements of the shopping center. Carefully review any reciprocal easement agreements (REAs) that may be in place for use restrictions, no-build areas, parking ratios, operating covenants, and other restrictions. Analyze zoning regulations, and be sure to conduct a comprehensive market study including a competition analysis, demographic analysis, and marketplace needs analysis. Gathering as much information as possible at this stage will help you avoid future headaches and understand future development possibilities.

2. Examine lease agreements. One of the first things you want to do is carefully review lease agreements. Unlike developing your own shopping center where you might have 50 leases that are, for the most part, identical, when you acquire a center, you have to accept leases that someone else negotiated as long as a decade ago. Two or three different owners or property managers might have negotiated leases over the years, each with different language and a different way of organizing the various sections. It’s a good idea to have leases professionally abstracted to summarize the key information needed to monitor, review and update them easily, including tenants’ names, lease terms, square footage, address, base rent, and percentage rent. Lease abstracts allow you to start entering crucial information into your accounting system so that you can determine accurate billings. Pay particular attention to commencement and termination dates, information which also helps determine the timing of rent increases, as well as co-tenancy clauses and sales kick-outs.

3. Get the financial picture. The lease information should be added to the accounting system, along with any expenses, including administrative costs, that could/would be reimbursable by the tenants per the existing leases.  Understanding the current full comparative income statement for the property in detail will assist in understanding future profitability and valuation of the property.  Reviewing vendor contracts will help you figure out the expense side. Landscapers, janitorial services, security, maintenance, parking lot sweepers and plumbers—any kind of service that the shopping center outsources will have a vendor contract that spells out the specific terms of service and the costs. This information should be added to the accounting system, along with current payroll expenses, in order to assess the center’s current and future profitability. 

4. Transition employees. Unless the previous owner agreed to other arrangements, your purchase contract probably involved absorbing existing center employees, at least until the ideal long-term staffing levels can be determined. You will need to review paperwork to understand their current terms of employment including salaries and benefits packages. Among other human resources arrangements, be sure to interview each employee to ensure a good fit within your organization.

5. Identify new income opportunities. There’s just no such thing as a turnkey shopping center t hat you simply purchase, change nothing, and profit. That means you should be looking for ways to increase income and reduce expenses throughout the transition process and beyond. Depending on the type of center, your plans might involve redevelopment or simply more effective leasing. You might also want to consider some of the more innovative ways centers are creating additional income these days: Vending machines for products such as Coke and Pepsi, for example, offer prime advertising space as well as a venue for sales, and sponsorship and branding opportunities like the Rolex Court in The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace have become a big source of income for many centers.

6. Hire a property management company. Every owner prefers a different level of involvement with its properties, but most are seeking an investment opportunity, not a huge increase in their own daily responsibilities. That’s why the majority of shopping center owners hire a property management company early in the transition process. Look for a firm that specializes in the type of center you have purchased, understands the local market and its relation to national and regional markets, and has a track record of success consistent with your investment objectives. Beyond handling the day-to-day operations that will keep your mall humming, the property manager you hire should be able to assist in the transition by conducting due diligence, abstracting leases, onboarding employees, and strategizing merchandising and marketing approaches.

Hiring the right property management company is probably the single most important step you can take to ensure a smooth transition of ownership. A firm with comprehensive mall management capabilities—from repositioning and redevelopment to leasing and merchandising—will help your new property reach its fullest potential.

The post Buying a Mall? Six Essential Steps for a Smooth Transition appeared first on PLACES.

Luxury Brands in Emerging Markets

By Glyn Atwal and Douglas Bryson

As luxury companies continue to expand their global reach, they must continually assess how their business strategies are delivering competitive advantages. This book looks at the way in which luxury brands have deployed around the world – “decoding” luxury markets and the brand strategies that have been effective in driving consumer interest and loyalty. For all those retail real estate experts who are interested in how “luxury” remains an object of desire for customers around the world, this is a must read.

Global and Multinational Advertising 

By Basil G. Englis

Marketing is the discipline through which retail experts attempt to showcase their understanding of modern consumer psychology. Chapters in this thoughtful exploratory volume look at how advertising campaigns are organized, thought through and executed – aided by investigations of cultural and social values. The content will be of great interest to consumer psychologists as well as to marketing specialists in all aspects of retail.

24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep

By Jonathan Crary

The ubiquitous nature of consumerism – with our 24/7 access to material goods – is explored in this brilliant snapshot into our increasingly retail-driven universe. The book also looks into the format and tempo of contemporary cultures and how varying aspects of global cultures affect our buying habits. As the title suggests, Crary is also focused on how sleep deprivation affects our decision-making capabilities.

What’s the Future of Business: Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences? 

By Brian Solis

Probing how business leadership can improve business performance, engagement and relationships to attract a new generation of consumers, this book uses “real world” experiences versus “user experiences” as examples of how products, services, mobile and social media and commerce depend increasingly on a network of shared experience and expectations. This book is a vital tool for all those interested in making retail omni-channel and experiential.

The post What the Industry is Reading appeared first on PLACES.

Many center owners and managers have developed crisis communications manuals that spell out specific response protocols in the event of a disaster or incident. Such a response is prudent given the vast array of eventualities that centers need to anticipate. Hurricane Sandy, for instance, knocked many East Coast centers out of business for days – and by keeping customers and local media informed on re-opening details, centers that communicated often and well with the public were able to minimize lost shopping and restaurant traffic. A Madison Marquette managed center, Marketfair was impacted by Hurricane Sandy but managed to stay partially open — allowing area shoppers and visitors to access a facility that offered electricity, clean restrooms, well-lit and comfortable seating areas and Wi-Fi when much of the surrounding community was adversely affected. Marketfair reached out to its customer base via a range of onsite announcements and social media — a tool that has become increasingly important to centers across the country.

While centers today have superb security personnel in place, there are many communities where crime has unfortunately been on the rise. Thefts, assaults and gang violence occur more often than in years past — and centers must be equipped to communicate with the public (and to cooperate with local law enforcement) when bad things happen. Because crime can occur at any time, it is prudent for centers to have a clearly delineated chain of command for who can be a designated spokesperson, who can return calls to media and who will be the face of the center in a crisis. In addition, many centers have developed “holding statements” that have been approved ahead of time and can be adapted depending on the circumstances. Having these statements archived can allow centers to be proactive with up-to-date reactive information.

Most centers in the United States encourage their leadership staff to work closely with local media. For the most part, this allows centers to enjoy strong relationships with press covering their properties — while nurturing these relationships in case of crisis. However, dealing with media when the news is good can be significantly different than dealing with media when an emergency occurs. Thus, it is useful for any center staff that may work with press to undergo media training. This process helps strengthen the management’s comfort level in speaking with media — it provides management with a list of dos and don’ts in media interactions and reinforces the need to keep communications open even when it is most difficult or counterintuitive.

Recent studies have also shown centers that maintain close relationships with local law enforcement and first responders emerge from crises with less damage than centers that do not. Inviting local police and fire crews to tour center premises, study entrance and exit points and familiarize themselves with center layouts vastly improves their abilities to locate and disable assailants expeditiously. Most police and fire personnel are grateful for invitational walk-throughs with center management and to be informed of special events or promotions that may attract large crowds.

In our variegated society, many points of view exist on subjects as diverse as religion, politics and our natural environment. While freedom of expression is a critical pillar of our nation, it is also an opportunity for activists to take on almost any cause — including ones that may embroil a shopping center. Holiday displays, ecologic deficiencies, funding (or lack thereof) for center-based community events can bring out picketers and protesters. Center management needs to be trained to deal with such groups with courtesy and firmness while upholding private property rights and public safety.

Having touched upon the many ways in which centers may be called on to respond to crises, it is critical for centers to have their “crisis checklist” available in advance.

• Establish a clear chain of command on who is empowered to speak with the public and with the media
• Media-train spokespeople
• Maintain close and cordial working relationships with media, local law enforcement and emergency responders
• Prepare holding statements and ensure they can be adapted quickly and effectively
• Identify satellite locations where, if necessary, center staff and corporate executives can meet with press and emergency responders
• Keep copies of all crisis-related materials (emergency preparedness guides, holding statements, contact sheets, etc.) outside the office to ensure you always have access
• In the event of a major crisis, make certain that center staff instantaneously notify and consult with corporate leadership
• Be ready to update public and media audiences via all communication channels, including social media

While it is unfortunate that centers must arm themselves to deal with accidents, crime and natural disasters, the art of preparation ensures that collateral damage from any untoward event is held to a minimum. Taking proactive steps before disaster strikes is an important part of owning and managing a shopping center in this postmillennial world.

Social Media During a Crisis

It would be impossible to touch on crisis response in 2014 and not address social media as a crucial part of the Crisis Management Toolbox.

Social media allows centers to quickly disseminate information directly to the general public and key audiences. It can be incorporated into the communication strategy during crises when a center needs to provide the public with timely updates and wants to demonstrate its response to and handling of a situation. However, there are a few basic “dos” and “don’ts” when considering social media posts during crises:

 Do

• Coordinate with property and corporate communications teams to ensure social media messaging aligns with overall corporate or business communications plan
• Identify any social media policies held by mall ownership and ensure that there is full compliance with such policies and procedures
• Use social media channels to keep customers and the community updated on the center’s status during crises involving closures, damage, traffic or parking reconfigurations
• Turn off pre-scheduled or auto posts as they could relay incorrect information or be seen as insensitive during the crisis
• Delete any recent posts that may be insensitive in light of the crisis situation

Don’t

• Post any information without ensuring its absolute accuracy
• Post reactively–while center management is encouraged to respond quickly during normal operations, response during a crisis situation should be carefully considered
• Use slang or abbreviations
• Use stock photos or photos taken from other websites
• Use religious or politically oriented language

It is always important to recognize the power of social media and its related ability to become immediately viral. Because of this omni-channel reality, social media outreach should be approached with measure and focus during times of crisis.

The post Crisis Response: Getting Ahead of the Bad News Curve appeared first on PLACES.

In addition to this generational transfer, the recession introduced many new shopping center owners. While the titans of retail real estate investment held off on new purchases and offloaded assets following the economic collapse in 2008, new players saw an investment opportunity to buy when the market was low. There are a number of factors that can dictate the success or failure of retail real estate assets. Below are five key factors all mall owners should understand as they enter the evolving and challenging retail investment market.

#1. Know what your land is worth

Most opportunities to acquire malls for smaller, independent mall owners fall into the regional mall category, including older enclosed malls. Accordingly, knowing what your land is worth can help you make tough choices when it comes to your investment. The question of what to do with these malls is one the entire industry is facing and knowing the value of the land your mall sits on can help you answer that question. Owners should determine what the land is worth and what is permitted to exist on the land and may even consider what alternatives could exist on the property. Such questions may lead you to realize the value the mall has and reinforce its potential, regardless of its class. However, you may also find — coupled with a thorough review of the financial health of the asset and the local economy — that it would be more beneficial to transform the enclosed mall for another use. This could include redevelopment to create an open-air lifestyle center or adding more out-facing shops. You may also find the land is more valuable without the mall. Either way, this is an important determination to make at the start.

#2. Interview your tenants

Getting to know all tenants and understanding their performance, needs and deficiencies is crucial to understanding the property and maximizing its potential. Tenant interviews should start with the anchor store managers and should be conducted in a one-on-one, in-person basis. This will not only aid in building a relationship with your tenant constituency, but is the best way to learn about the center — straight from the people on the ground.

Gathering information on a tenant’s performance both regionally and nationally, and what products and departments are their best and worst selling, is key to evaluating the health of the center. For department store anchors, it is critical to identify their best performing departments as this most often reflects a deficiency in them merchandising mix throughout the center. For example, if the anchor’s best performing department is women’s shoes, you will most likely notice that you are lacking adequate shoe retailers in the rest of the mall and that presents a great opportunity for the leasing team.

While these discussions can help identify opportunities, it is also important to listen to the tenants’ needs. You need to be prepared, as tenants will see this as an opportunity to share complaints that they may have been harboring for years. However, those complaints can be just as valuable as the performance insights. This feedback can help identify issues that are hindering the success of the center, including parking issues, maintenance concerns, signage needs, etc. Whether hearing positive or negative fee.

#3. Review your leases

While the information gathering sessions described above are invaluable, you will need to review all current leases for a complete picture of the center’s operations and finances. This review should determine your current tenants’ lease terms, clauses and cash flow. It should also track and chart tenant renewal dates. Carefully reviewing leases, or having them professionally abstracted, can help identify disconcerting trends so that you can be prepared with a strategy to keep vacancy low and your merchandise mix on target.

#4. Reach out to your representatives

As a new mall owner, you are also now a major employer, taxpayer and economic driver in your municipality and therefore you should develop relationships with your local, state and federal representatives. Request an in-person meeting to introduce yourself and share details on your center, encourage partnerships, and highlight its impact on the local economy. Creating a fact sheet that includes background on the center, including employment numbers, can be useful. You’ll also want to educate the representative on any center needs and how various policies impact the center (and in turn the local economy). Moving forward, it is also a good idea to invite the mayor and any other relevant municipal employees to significant mall events such as ribbon-cuttings or ground-breakings. This reinforces the relationship and demonstrates the importance of the center to the local community.

#5. When in doubt, bring in the experts

Those who are completely new to the retail real estate industry, or have been primarily focused on the investment side with minimal property management experience, should consider seeking expert services. Shopping center management, particularly in today’s environment, is complex. Understanding the intricacies of leasing, property management, accounting and marketing – and how they are all integrated– is vital to success. If you don’t have the right background, bringing in a third-party service provider can help you move up the learning curve at your own pace, while adding value to your investment from the start.

The post 5 Tips for New Mall Owners appeared first on PLACES.