All Forum Posts by: Damon DiPlacido

Hello Arjav - A co-worker of mine is a CRE leasing broker south Jersey in that market. I'll send you his info. Thanks.

Hi Milan, Yes, this does occur. You would need to have a reciprocal easement agreement - which is negotiated between both sides attorneys. But before hiring an attorney, you should just call the developer direct to float the idea to them to see if there's interest. I'm open to further discussion either here or offline. If offline, my contact info is on my profile page. 

Hello Milan - They'll have shell delivery requirements which will also outline their specs. for gas, electric, hvac, water, and sewer. There is an expectation of TI dollars being provided up and above the shell. Depending on the deal leverage of how good the location vs how struct the tenant is, this can be negotiated. Most food franchisee driven concepts I typically see $20-25 psf in TI. Starbucks with corporate signature can get more. Starbucks and Dunkins' expansion is all about locations with drive-thru's (unless you have an A location where it's not permitted). Also, for Starbucks the drive-thru will require 8 car stacking at a minimum...Dunkin is probably similar. Easy ingress/egress is a must - no more than two turns, and being on the morning side of the road is important for coffee operators. Good luck. 

As a starting position I would add interest, but as it's a national tenant, I would agree to remove the interest if they balked at it. No need to negotiate against yourself out of the gate, but certainly balance that with expectations based on the type of tenant you have.

Tamas - TI (sometimes written as TA or TIA) is the tenant improvement allowance. Joel is right, if a tenant comes at with you with TI requirement in their propose / lease commencment, unless it's a credit tenant or a strong franchisee, I would recommend some free rent after opening  in lieu of actual TI dollars. 

Yes, it can be done but watch out for parking ratios requirements. Often pharmacy parking requirements and parking requirements for other types of retail are different. 

Many retailers have a Real Estate page on their website with instructions on how to submit a site (to me this is a black hole) or a contact person, but many retailers have nothing on their website as well. In that case, just call the corporate office and ask for the real estate department. That said, many retailers use brokers so even if you do get through to the corporate real estate manager, there's a good chance you'll be referred to their broker. 

If you're looking at a neighborhood shopping center with a major grocery anchor, how much in-line space is considered ideal?  There is no one correct answer to your question as there are a lot of factors which will dictate what can be done (or should be done) with each specific site. Neighborhood grocery anchored centers are typically 75,000 - 125,000 sf in size. If you factor in most major grocers run 45 - 65,000 sf (some even a little larger), this is one factor that will help determine what might be done with the remaining, in addition to things like overall size of the site, how much is buildable, population density, parking ratio requirements, etc.  

Also, let's say you have a major grocery store, but also have a very popular restaurant, such as a local pizza or Mexican place. Would those kinds of restaurants or other popular in-line tenants improve the grocery sales? For example, stopping at the grocery store while picking up laundry or the kids from a daycare? Sure, there's benefit that goes both ways between anchors and small shop tenants. However, at the end of the day, it's the anchor tenant that drives business to the center, and often anchors will dictate what types of tenants they will allow as co-tenants in the center and may even impose radius restrictions within so many feet of their door depending on the tenant use. There is one anchor tenant that comes to mind who will not allow restaurants, gyms, churches within 300 ft of their premises (within the center) as these tenants use up a lot of parking for extended periods of time. 

If the grocery store is dated, how difficult is it to remodel? Can this be done in a way to minimize hassle to shoppers or is a complete rebuild more usual? Can't speak to the specifics on how best to handle other than I know remodels happen every so many years with national tenants to keep their stores looking current and modern. I have one center in particular that the anchor recently remodeled their store and did it in sections. At the same same, a smaller national tenant will be moving temporarily into the adjacent space while they do their store remodel. 

I know this office building in Malvern where they are located. Dun & Bradstreet is in this building. Also in this building as a tenant is American Executive Centers, which rents out individual offices (by the room) and a centralized/shared administrative assistant to many new/newer businesses.  The principal of Oproperties is most likely renting an office here. 

I do a good amount of chain restaurant leasing as a tenant rep - mostly franchise concepts. 

From the tenant's perspective you want the "commencement" clock to start ticking upon receipt of permits.  I often propose rent and lease term to commence  150 days from receipt of permits, and will often secure 120 days. Landlords, on the other hand, will prefer to start the commencement clock upon a certain number of days from lease execution, or if the LL will be performing work after lease execution, it will be x number of days from turnover. Also, most landlords will negotiate for an "earlier or" clause as part of commencement. For example, commencement language may read as "rent and lease term to commencement 120 days from turnover or opening of business, whichever is earlier."

Depending on the deal terms, the concept, and the strength of tenant, condition of the space landlords will be more agreeable to base commencement on receipt of permits, rather than lease execution.