How to find national tenants representative?

[Colin Wu]

Dear all seasoned real estate investors and commercial real estate brokers,

Before getting started, everyone's advice will be appreciated and all opinions will be considered. 

We are developing retail centers in Southern California and would like to attract national tenants by connecting to those who are representing national franchises specially restaurants or retails. Instead of having a listing broker find us those tenants, how are we able to touch base with tenant representatives of national tenants? 

Again, thank you. 

Colin W. 

[Matt Williams]

Most national firms have a spot on their web site where you can submit a site for consideration but I have never gotten a response other than an autoreply.  I can only see this working if you have stumbled into a site they can't live without which seems highly unlikely.  Some sites have a list w name and phone and you can submit direct but I find you don't usually get a call or email back. 

The right brokers make all the difference in this niche.   Real estate managers for national tenants are generally spread really thin, covering multiple states.  They tend to rely heavily on their tenant rep broker.  Find out who runs with what tenant and i'll bet you find the same brokerage companies over and over.   Not sure how long you have been looking into this, but great resource is ICSC.  Put your time in here, go to their networking events, i think this issue will be come pretty clear.

i just re-read your question, and i wonder if what you are asking is can you list your own product for lease and essentially pay just the tenant side commission.  i think this is possible but even more important to know who runs with each tenant.  I would think get a few done where you have it listed with the right person and then once you know the lay of the land you could try one without a broker.   

High profile multi tenant strip retail is one of the product types we work in.  I have almost always used a broker to market our spaces for lease because if you are talking to the right guys they operate in that world all the time and I don't.  Also it encourages them to think of you for new projects if you'll keep them on for lease up period.   These same guys have been my best sources of deals.  Listing side fees not a big savings in the big picture.