Brandon, Florida (Outside Tampa) Strip Center

[Craig Bazarsky]

Hello, I am developing an approximately 6,500SF strip center in Brandon, Florida on SR-60.  I am looking for advice for signing a lease with a national credit tenant.  Below are some quick highlights about the site:

• Corner at lighted intersection
• Approximately 65,000 AADT on SR-60
• 212,000 people and over $76,000 average household income within a 5-mile radius
• Approximately 1.02 acre site with 290 feet of frontage on SR-60
• Less than 1 mile from Brandon Regional Hospital
• Surrounded by national retailers

Thanks!

Craig

[Joel Owens]

So Craig you own the land or is it under contract? If under contract you would perform  a void analysis and see what is the (highest and best use tenant) that could pay the most rent and sell for the best cap rate on resale.  

You would find out who the tenant rep broker is for that brand and area. I find only maybe 20% of national tenants deal with you directly and just refer you to their broker tenant rep. They want someone to scrub the lead and if it makes it through certain filters then they might look at it.

Frankly they are trying to avoid newer developers trying to learn the process. Even if they like the site the question becomes can the developer do what they say they can do in the time they say?

If you get interest from the tenant you want then they generally place an LOI and then work toward a lease signing. You want the lease commitment before closing on the land. This is generally true for STNL properties. MTNL the lender wants some percentage of pre-leasing. Hopefully you did not already close on the land unless you bought it for dirt cheap.

Example there is a huge difference  in rent and what cap rate something sells at like a Mcdonald's or Chick Fil A versus a Bojangles. Same piece of dirt but one resale price is 2,500,000 and the other is 4 million for almost same sq ft build. 

To buy the land and then go searching out tenants to see if you can get rent that works to develop is doing it backwards. Sellers of course want you to buy the land and figure it all out later. Great for them but bad for you unless you get it so cheap any tenant and lower rents will pencil and make a profit just not as much as the national tenant you wanted etc.