Doers and Viewers: Division of Labor in Real Estate Research

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Jim Stone

After 3 ½ weeks, my blog page called “Site Selection Surprises: Stories from the Field,” has more than twice the average page views of the other blog articles. What’s so compelling about this article? The stated purpose of the page is to provide a forum for chain store real estate dealmakers and analysts to share stories of success and failure in order to build our experience base for evaluating future deals. Makes sense, who wouldn’t want that?

Continue reading →

A Vision for Profitable Chain Store Development

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Jim Stone

I have had the good fortune to get a close up view of many chain store operators in action over the past 20 years. It’s amazing to see the wide variety of approaches used to find, open, relocate, and sometimes close stores. There are many different org charts and reporting structures that sometimes place the real estate function directly below the CEO and in other cases reporting to the CFO or VP Marketing. There are Real Estate Research Directors who have large staffs and tight controls over deal approval as well as companies who give the dealmakers responsibility for research. Continue reading →

Different Problems Different Questions – The Challenge of Context

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Jim Stone

Years ago I was trying to sell site evaluation software to the commercial lending group at Freddie Mac. They had fifteen underwriters around the country with huge piles of loan requests on their desks and very little time to analyze each deal. The person I was working with described his problem like this:

“There are only about ten criteria we need to evaluate in order to approve or reject the loan. Unfortunately the ten criteria are usually different for each deal!” Continue reading →

And now, the rest of the story…

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Jim Stone

The retail marketplace is a complex system that is constantly changing and is full of surprises. Sometimes these surprises are positive; and other times they are not! It never ceases to amaze me how many different combinations of factors lead to success and failure in chain store performance. Complexity drives statistical models crazy (as well as the people who use them). There seem to be as many exceptions as there are rules, and the best way to understand these exceptions is by listening to experts tell their stories about what happened.

AND NOW… I’m pleased to announce the unveiling of a new page in this blog:

“Site Selection Surprises – Stories from the Field”

Please click on the new page above for the rest of the story…

Connections: the Key to Success in Chain Store Real Estate

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Jim Stone

Not too many years ago, chain store real estate was almost entirely a “people” business. The ICSC was the formal organization that provided regular gatherings among landlords, tenants, brokers, and all the other suppliers to the shopping center/chain store industry. “Going to Vegas” has become an annual pilgrimage for dealmakers since 1986 (the first convention was held in New York in 1958). The telephone and the automobile were the primary research tools. The research department was often located at one of the many bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and golf courses across the country. Continue reading →

Hitting a Moving Target

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Jim Stone

After you think about art and science in decision-making for a while, it can be addictive. I can’t even shoot arrows in my back yard without thinking about it. Continue reading →

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Jim Stone

It’s hard to miss the similarity between baseball and site selection, right?

“That store is a home run.”

“We’re going to have to step up to the plate and do the deal.”

“She threw me a curve ball with that percentage rent clause.”

“We’re going to have to knock it out of the park to catch up to our competiton.” Continue reading →

The Pendulum Swings: from Right Brain to Left Brain to…Whole Brain?

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Jim Stone

What’s worse? Too little science or too much science?

Ahh, trick question. The answer is that science is not a quantity that can be measured and compared to a standard. Most people would agree with this, but we often hear people say “we need a little more science in our site selection process.” Continue reading →

How Can We Make Better Real Estate Decisions?

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Jim Stone

All of us in the chain store industry would love to believe that we are making better real estate decisions today than before we had digitial maps, demographic data, and predictive models. There is no question that some companies have reduced capital losses from store closings and increased profitability of their stores with these tools. Continue reading →

Chain Store Advisors

Connecting Art and Science