There was a book written by Jim Collins called Good to Great. I am a huge fan of this book as it talks about how being great, and in this case we are going to be talking about how to be a great retail tenant. Being good is just not cutting it any more, especially in commercial retail real estate. That is the topic of today’s thoughts. Let’s dive right in. So, I woke up this morning and read an article about Michael Jackson and...

After the juice debacle, I was out of work for about six months. The Lord blessed me with a few connections that ended up landing me a gig with CB Richard Ellis – Global Client Services, Transactions and Investments group on the Bank of America account. CBRE was good to me for a short stint (one year exactly). Similar to the Jamba Juice story, but this time the US economy was to blame. The Feds has a lot to do with the growth plans for...

I was sitting in the office of a company that was going down fast, and looking for the quickest exit. Unfortunately the owners were ‘in-taking’ the money that the company was earning…I hope you can ‘smell’ what I am talking about here. If you use your ‘nose’ you should be able to ‘sniff’ it out (hint, hint)… seriously, the owners were doing that, and in the office none-the-less. So,...

So, how does a new broker get business for the new venture? It all starts with marketing. Marketing starts with websites. Websites start with corporate identity package. Corporate identity packages start with logo. Logo starts with brand image. That is a lot to take in, but let it soak for a minute, and let’s start from the top (or the last part of the above list). Brand Image: As someone who has been in the corporate real estate...

I spent a great deal of time in the north eastern part of the United States trying to find retail space for lease, for an ice cream company. I know what you are thinking, the north east is already cold, and why would I be there trying to find locations for ice cream sales! Well, you all know that Ben & Jerry’s is from Vermont, and that alone is crazy, so ice cream in the north east is compared to selling ice to Eskimos. Take a step...