Looking for tips on pre leasing
I recently started working for my fathers commercial development firm located in the sw florida area. We currently have a 2.71 acre commercial parcel in a fast growing area of south fort myers that we plan to develop into a 22,000 sqft retail strip. Ideally we want to get at least one solid multi national anchor before we break ground on building. Iv been tasked with pre leasing and its been a more difficult task then i expected. What are the best ways to go about attracting tenets for pre leasing? I built a basic website and made flyers showing the property with demographic info, community drivers, site plans etc. Iv been emailing different companies who don't have a presence in the area and who i feel would benefit from being in said area. Started networking with local leasing agents and developers to spread word of our project. What else can i be doing to find tenets?
[{"id": "ekqfl1a", "text": "Honestly, consider hiring a broker who specializes in retail leasing and has relationships with tenants that would be attractive. That would be your best bet.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ekqsji7", "text": "Yes, I would contact tenant reps in your area. They will usually have relationships with parent companies of retailers.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ekr5p84", "text": "Former long time corporate site selector from FL here.  I second the idea of talking to tenant rep brokers, they'll know who's expanding and what those retailers are looking for.  You could also look at online tenant databases, I just saw that Realtytrac offers a free 3-day trial.  \n\nBy anchor, do you mean credit tenants or are you looking for a large SF retailer that will draw traffic to the center?  There aren't a huge number of retailers  expanding and many that are need 8-10,000 sf or so, do you want that much SF in an anchor?\n\nBasically, I always looked for a site with good visibility and access, ideally on a signalized corner.  A midblock parcel with medians in the road is a show stopper.  You also need enough traffic count and population nearby.  I look more at population within certain drive times vs 1, 3 or 5 mile rings. \n\nSW FL is really hot, if you have a decently located piece of property you should get tenants.  Make sure you have a nice large, professional-looking leasing sign on site, too", "replies": [{"id": "ekrcftj", "text": "By anchor I was talking about getting a solid credit tenet in the strip before building. However we also own a larger parcel directly to the north which is about 3.78 acres and would be perfect for a larger SF anchors to drive traffic to the center. This is all very helpful. Thank you so much for this comment.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ekrq9jo", "text": "Does the building have an ability to do a Drive thru? Leasing agent in Texas here and drive-thrus opportunities are a premium and more likely to get signed before the building is built. Target restaurant/banks/dry cleaners that utilize them.\n\nAlso consider splitting a larger 22,000 sf building into two smaller buildings to increase the end cap opportunities which national credit tenants want. May lose some leasable SF in doing that but you can charge a premium on the endcaps to over come that.", "replies": [{"id": "eksw3t4", "text": "Yes! We can definitely do drive thrus on the end caps. Thats something i will emphasize more on the flyers and website. I really like the idea of splitting the center into 2 buildings as a way to get more value out of end caps. Im going run some analysis to figure out how many sqft we would be losing as compared to what we could bring in from the increased rents. Now that i think about it, if we split the strip in two, it would also give us the ability to build it in phases as opposed to all at once. Got a lot to think about. Thank you so much for the insight. this has all been very helpful to me.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "elqpzi2", "text": "Hello I have something further to bounce off you, will try to PM you later today.", "replies": [{"id": "elqrnzi", "text": "Great! looking forward to it. Ill keep an eye out for your PM. \n\nthanks!", "replies": [{"id": "elqzjj5", "text": "Just sent.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]