Any Chain Retailer (Starbucks, Dunkin, etc.) Broker in NJ?

Question

A friend of mine has 2 commercial properties in NJ. One is ready to go, and the other has been approved to re-zone. They want to try to get a national chain retailer in there as an anchor to maximize their asset value.

Do any of you, or know somebody, work with these national/regional chain retailers as a broker, consultant, etc. to bring them great locations for their stores? Any connection and feedback is helpful in how to go about this process!

Joel Owens · Answer

Hi Ujwal,

Starbucks and Dunkin are miles apart in risk factor. Starbucks has corporate owned and ran locations in the United States. Dunkin tends to be mostly all franchisee with a few stores corporate. So risk profile is much heavier and the 2 brands trade at about the same cap rate for new development. As a land owner though I would want the security of a Starbucks with lease guarantee over a Dunkin likely to be a franchisee. Dunkin is heavy on donuts so tends to do better in cold belt states with more constant colder climates that are better suited to eating heavier type foods. I find in warm belt states many consumers will eat a donut occasionally but too hot to eat donuts all the time. They tend to opt more for cold and refreshing drinks that are lighter and not as heavy in hot weather climates.

The real estate departments for most chains do NOT want to speak or communicate with land owners that have potential sites. Instead they have their local tenant rep leasing broker they designate to be the front lines of getting site applications and doing the initial scrubbing of the sites. Then the leasing broker talks to their real estate tenant contact and they discuss. Then if looks good they might pursue further. National tenants take awhile to make a decision and go to LOI unless your friend has an A PLUS site that rarely comes available. If they have a B type site where Starbucks for expansion plans has 3 different choices in the market then Starbucks might wait for an A to open up later or put the 3 land owners against each other to try and get the best lease terms for themselves.

If you do not know who reps those specific tenants in your area you can reach out to the corporate division on the tenants website and they will often let you know who to follow up with.

Hope it helps.

Ujwal Velagapudi · Answer

@Joel Owens Very good point on the risk profile given how they expand, will have to keep a note of that as each entity is different.

That's what I suspected, that they have their own brokers & reps, so it seems that will just have to be done through their corporate channel for each company.

Thank you, appreciate the feedback!

Any Chain Retailer (Starbucks, Dunkin, etc.) Broker in NJ?

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