There are two big threats to retail that nearly every landlord is trying to avoid: sales lost to online shopping and shoppers lost due to a recession.
It may be impossible to completely fend off an attack from either, but Jon Wheeler, CEO of Pinnacle Real Estate Investment Group, has a strategy for minimizing both. Wheeler is a big believer in grocery-anchored shopping centers in secondary and tertiary markets. He prefers stabilized (as opposed to value-add) assets with quality grocers and a variety of necessity- and service-based retailers, such as gyms, drugstores and nail salons, as well as restaurants that ideally comprise about 10 to 20 percent of the leasable space at a center.
He also believes in the community approach, meaning that these shopping centers serve as social spaces for these smaller markets, which tend to internalize the good neighbor approach. When shoppers are presented with an opportunity to complete a variety of tasks, pick up their regular staples and run into a few friendly faces while doing so, Wheeler believes you’ve made a customer for life.
to hear more about Wheeler’s approach to secondary and tertiary markets.
This video was created as part of the Retail Insight newsletter by Shopping Center Business, a brief newsletter series leading up to the 2019 ICSC RECon conference and including post-conference video interviews. The videos in the publication are created in conjunction with our content partners, which sponsor the newsletter. Click here to subscribe.