What are the job functions of a brand's Real Estate Director?
I'm sure it varies from company to company, but I'm interested in how, say, a VP of Real Estate at Best Buy does their job, specifically on the distribution side.  Are they responsible for market analysis, trend forecasting, and logistics planning ("we need an additional distribution center in this market to support future growth, and it needs to be x SF...") in addition to site selection, negotiations, and portfolio management?

Really, I'm just looking for some insight into their roles, responsibilities, challenges, pain points, goals, etc.

Reading material or outside sources welcome.

Thanks!


[{"id": "cw1qts3", "text": "I worked as a real estate rep for a retailer under the company's director. Typically, that high of a position ina  company that large would oversee all real estate (office, big box locations, etc), not just distribution centers/warehouses, then they would have people \"in the field\" focusing on a certain market or region.\n\nAs far as the responsibilities for the director, he would begin by developing a real estate strategy after reviewing the companies goals/expansion or disposition efforts with other executives. After that, he would execute this strategy through his real estate department (the guys in the field), targeting priority regions. The field guys would gather sites, market info, etc, and review them with the director, who would then have to justify those sites to the CFO or COO (depending on the company). If approved, he will still use his guys in the field to negotiate and close the transactions. Now keep in mind this typically is happening simultaneously in different markets, so there is (hopefully) a constant pipeline of sites or leases to review, properties to visit/tour, etc.\n\nOn top of all this, the director will typically oversee the real estate portfolio, managing any lease expansions, renewals, options, etc.", "replies": [{"id": "cw20pnu", "text": "This is a great answer, thank you!\n\nAs a regional rep, how often did you have an idea of the different site availabilities going into a given market vs. working with a local broker who knows the turf a little more intimately?  Obviously a broker is going to be involved, but did you ever find yourself steering the ship so to speak when it came to checking out different properties, or was it easier / more convenient to leave it to the brokers?", "replies": [{"id": "cw2169q", "text": "Most of the deals we did were corner lot purchases. Our company allowed us to work with brokers to help us find sites and negotiate deals, but some companies have a \"we do not pay broker commissions\" policy - meaning you are essentially a salaried broker for your company, and your client is your company.\n\n\nFor my purposes, I used a lot of demographic data to find where our customers were, then used traffic counts to determine where they are driving. From there, I simply drove around trying to find easily accessibly, pad-ready sites. Then it was just knocking on doors or trying to get in touch with these property owners to see if they would consider selling their property, and hopefully do a direct, off-market deal without any brokers involved.\n\nIn regards to your question, it really depends on your company. Some companies have real estate reps in their expansion markets to find the sites and do the deals for them, eliminating the need to pay for brokers. Other companies have *no* local representatives, and work with a brokerage firm. Then - as it was in my case - there are companies who might use both. I was told to try to avoid using a broker. The reason i was allowed to use one if i needed to was because 1) i was new to the industry and responsible for my market and 2) we were expanding aggressively", "replies": [{"id": "cw22mqs", "text": "I'm curious why some wouldn't work with brokers?  Unless you are ordering adviser services outside of acquisitions I'd think this would be nearly always cost free to them?  What am I missing there?\n\nThats not really in my ball park but the few retail things I've done with nationals it seemed like they always had some chain of national and regional representation ", "replies": [{"id": "cw237m8", "text": "Right, in my limited experience with giving tours (industrial) it's typically been the brand's real estate rep (often a national guy rather than regional \u2013 not that it really matters other than not needing that additional level of buy-in), along with a national broker, and then a local guy from that same brokerage firm who's more familiar with the current offerings in that particular market. \n\nI guess in the end it's just restructuring personnel based on whether the brand wants to pay brokerage fees or keep someone on the payroll to that work on their behalf.", "replies": [], "depth": 5}, {"id": "cw25g5n", "text": "For one, the company was heavily pushing to identify off-market opportunities (typically we are able to get a far better value without facing a listing broker, but instead facing an individual property owner). Tenant rep brokers typically will not go out of there way (at least in my experience) to help find these off market deals, and instead use their CRE databases. Secondly, the cost of a 4% tenant broker fee is usually implemented into the sale or lease price. When we are pursuing a marketed property without a t-rep broker, we always talk up the fact that we want to do this without a broker to save them (and hopefully us) money.", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cw1xalx", "text": "The title means different things for different companies, depending on the business. Best Buy's Director of RE would likely oversee all leases, manage distribution footprint, etc.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]