By Arthur Perlen, CCIM
The Centennial Retail Services team is known for its boots-on-the-ground approach. For us, this is more than just the fact that our office is in Nashville and therefore we know the Middle Tennessee market. It’s the deeply entrenched knowledge at the intersection of market understanding and client understanding that enables us to uncover off-market opportunities, allowing our clients to open stores in a very, very tight market.
Our cumulative experience in Nashville and the surrounding markets is 80-90 years at this point. We’ve not only had a front row seat to the changes in the marketplace; we’ve been part of the ongoing effort to effectuate them. For us, it’s not about reacting to changes in various submarkets – it’s about being leaders who are well apprised in advance of what’s becoming available or where the path of growth is leading. Since we work in the market every day, we have that information.
We know our markets without running reports (though of course we still do!). All the technology in the world cannot replace local market knowledge. We see the neighborhoods changing right before our eyes and have the expertise to understand how those changes will play out in the future. We know the submarkets so well that we can instinctively match retailers with their customers. Which is why it is critical that we understand our clients’ business.
Tenant representation is far more than “get a tenant and start looking for places to put them.” We make it our business to really know our clients. This extends beyond their operations, or navigating their real estate site selection processes to get a site approved, into the intricacies of history, corporate personality, mission, and customers.
Our success (and theirs) hinges on our finely tuned understanding of who they market to, and why they market to them; what their product is, and who buys it. For our restaurant tenants, it’s important to know their menu because their menu offerings and prices dictate who their customers are.
Every retailer has different customers. Many don’t cross demographic lines, though some do. Even in the QSR (quick-service restaurant) industry, some tenants prefer a working-class population, while others perform best in more affluent areas. Many QSRs do well in middle markets because everyone in the family is working, and QSRs become a great dinner option for busy families. Market knowledge is key to identifying which submarkets have that demographic.
It can be tricky to know which submarkets work – and don’t work – in middle Tennessee. Through our own void analyses, we can identify a market a client hasn’t considered. Their customer is right there, a whole forum of people they didn’t realize could be served, and that retailer can come in and have the entire market all to themselves.
We also look at local competition within the submarket – including how other retailers serving a similar clientele are performing in the market. Everyone looks at direct competition, but we look at indirect as well and gather as much sales volume data as possible.
All of this is a direct result of learning the client’s business and understanding their customer base and combining that information with our market knowledge.
In tight markets like Nashville, access to off-market deals is critical to a retailer’s ability to open and operate a successful store. Demographics are helpful but are often a lagging indicator. To get out in front of them, we look at where residential markets are changing: gentrifying areas, new subdivisions under construction, and where building permits are being pulled. We want our clients to be ahead of the curve, before anyone else.
Since we are always looking for sites for our clients, we approach landowners and landlords about off-market opportunities long before we put together a property tour. We know the owners, and we ask the questions before our tenants see the property. It is the only way a deal gets done here. Listing websites show only properties that are actively marketed, and they often contain little or incomplete information. The secret sauce for opening a store in Nashville is an off-market transaction, and we are the masters of making those happen.
Without local knowledge and understanding of the dynamics in our market, retailers cannot have a successful store rollout. With the right boots-on-the-ground partner in place, we make it happen every day.
To learn more about opportunities in the Nashville MSA, please contact us today.
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