Wednesday, August 20, 2008

CM PRESS # 461


WE GET MAIL ABOUT TRIANGLE SQUARE

Dear CM PRESS:

I've been a commercial real estate broker for many years. My specialty is retail properties (shopping centers).

Over the years, I've watched as a long list of very competent leasing brokers have been hired to revitalize Triangle Square and then I've watched each be replaced after they failed.

They've all come on board with glowing press releases about how they'll do this and that. Then, they've all quietly slipped away in the night after having failed to make the center profitable.

Good intentions and even good ideas that may work elsewhere won't save Triangle Square.

Triangle Square is different than most centers and has different problems. Different solutions are needed.

At last night's City Council meeting (August 19), Councilperson Linda Dixon said she wanted to know what the owners of Triangle Square are doing to attract new retail tenants. Implicit in her question--given her facial expression and tone of voice--is an apparent belief that all that is needed is an aggressive campaign to bring in new retail tenants.

With all due respect to Ms. Dixon, this is what has been tried and this is what has failed and will continue to fail. This is why amateurs (such as the original City Council who approved Triangle Square) should seek expert advice.

Retail real estate is different from other types of real estate. It is highly dependent on a proper tenant mix, demographics, traffic patterns, placement of traffic signals, curb cuts, parking lot design, and much, much more that would take me too long to discuss here.
It is not like residential, office or industrial real estate. Retail real estate involves a complex mix of variables that have to be handled and balanced if a center is to be profitable.

Instead of offering a complete course about retail real estate, let me just cut to the chase. Here's what I'd be considering if I owned Triangle Square or if I were advising the owners.

PLAN A (The best plan but also the most expensive and the one that would take longer to do.)

1. Underground the 55 Freeway to about 15th Street.
2. Then, turn the east side of the center on the surface along Newport Blvd. into a pedestrian friendly shopping area with Triangle Square as the focus.
3. Then, re-tenant the center with the types of tenants that thrive in such an open area.

PLAN B

1. Close off Harbor Blvd. just south of 19th Street and turn the west side of the center into a pedestrian friendly area that would flow into the Court Yard shopping center.
2. Re-tenant.

PLAN C
1. Stop focusing on retail tenants. This is a black hole for such tenants as things now sit.
2. Find tenants whose "customers" have to come to the center and who have to park in the dark caverns down below. This means rent to a college or government agency.

If properly executed, any of the above three plans have a high probability of making the center profitable.
In PLANS A and B, a more modern look that would change the appearance from the present hinted at Spanish Mission look of the center would help.

Name Withheld by CM PRESS
# # #
Thanks for reading the CM PRESS.

 http://frankspeech.com/