Attracting National Tenants / Build to Suit / Ground Lease

[Gene H.]

Hello -

First post here and a newbie when it comes to commercial real estate development! Wanted to get some input/thoughts on how to attract national tenants for a build to suit project or ground lease.

We own a highly trafficked commercial corner lot (~2.2 acres) in a suburb south of Seattle WA and are committed to developing the land as we see good financial potential in developing it ourselves vs just selling it outright. Obviously, our first choice would be to go with the ground lease route and second would be to do a build to suit w/ a national tenant(s) e.g. 7-11, McDonalds, Walgreens etc.

But before we go any further, we'd like to know what are the necessary/important steps to attract national retail/fast food tenants. Do national retailers that go with the build to suit or ground lease route usually find their own sites, purchase the land and develop them w/ a developer/contractor they've done business with in the past? Or would they consider ideas/sites proposed by developers? Last but not least, would hiring a commercial leasing agent specializing in retail be the best route and would they help source potential clients?

Thank you so much in advance! Any input would be highly apprecaited.