Retail Leasing Consultants
for Malls and Shopping Centers

¦ RL   ¦ Retail Tenant Deal Letters   ¦ Retail Lease Agreements   ¦ Other

As retail leasing consultants for malls and shopping centers, StoneCreek LLC works with developers, facility owners, and client design, development, and operations teams, in areas of guest programming, tenanting plans, and retail leasing programs. We also work with specific tenants on matters of site selection, negotiation, and deal representation.

Our scope of services can include all or part of the following task program:

Trade Area Analysis

It is quite important to determine a shopping center's competitive retail trade area, and to prepare information credible to prospective tenants. Department stores, in-line retailers, and stand-alone tenants each have their criteria for surrounding area population, traffic counts, and co-tenancies in connection with particular shopping malls.

It is also essential to carefully evalute the existing presence of key anchor and other tenants in the defined trade area of a shopping center or mall. Working as retail leasing consultants it is useful to understand that each tenant has its own story - and an effective leasing plan will be informed by whether a tenant is already in a region by looking to expand, or, is expanding nationally and looking for first sites in a particular region. Some tenants may be contracting as well, to fewer sites in better shopping center or freestanding locations.

Project Leasing Plan

Stonecreek LLC's role as retail leasing consultants includes preparation of formal leasing plan documents - a form of business plan for use by all members of the ownership and implementation team. As a client's retail leasing consultant, Stonecreek LLC can prepare a comprehensive leasing plan - typically including factors such as 1) preparation of target tenant prospect lists for specific shopping centers; 2) specification of tenant finish criteria; 3) space and location requirements by type of tenant and type of mall location; 4) determination of target lease rates and tenant improvement allowances, 5) other financial measures for benchmarking the leasing program such as "bond yield" equivalencies for tenant lease deals used by many financial institutions.

Retail Leasing Program Materials

Acting as a project's retail leasing consultant, Stonecreek LLC supports client mall leasing programs including the creation of leasing information packages for use with tenant solicitation. This includes the preparation of standard program letters and documents, the review and/or preparation of standard lease agreements, and the physical creation of leasing suite and multi-media presentations unique to each mall or shopping center.

Retail Leasing Communications Program

Effective communication of retail leasing and project information to prospective and/or target tenants is essential to mall leasing program success. As retail leasing consultants, we can assist with the preparation and routing of strategic press releases and the creation of a website and download-able materials describing a shopping center's leasing program including emailers.

Retail Leasing consultants for Tenant Prospecting

Stonecreek LLC collaborates with local Owner leasing and brokerage teams, and associates with a nationwide network of leasing brokers and tenant reps, as well as through direct relationships with tenants.

As a client's retail leasing consultant, we can direct, contact, and follow-up as appropriate with prospective tenants. We can arrange site visits for each of the target tenants, where feasible. We can support a client?s handling of prospects once they reach deal letter status. Stonecreek LLC can also support a client?s negotiations with prospects, as requested by client, and act as a liaison for the client/tenant as financing, partnering, and build-out, occurs.

Property Management Oversight

As retail leasing consultants, Stonecreek LLC has extensive experience facilitating an owner's organization process of retention and supervision of third-party property management firms. In many instances, the leasing program for a retail center is best pursued through careful delineation of property management versus leasing activities.

This includes solicitation of proposals to manage, negotiation of management contract terms, supervision of property manager activities, capital and FF&E review and approvals, banking procedures, and property-level tenant leases, service contracts, and other vendor relationships.

Retail Leasing consultants as Owner Representation

For some client circumstances, Stonecreek LLC is best retained as a representative of owner, or "Owner's Rep" for one or more business matters including management of a project leasing program.

Property Takeover Planning

One area often overlooked during an acquisition is proper consideration of the actual takeover or possession. For a complex property, or gegraphically-dispersed portfolio, takeover planning is a major consideration.

The takeover is equivalent to a pre-opening program for a newly-built property. For many takeovers following an acquisition, the difficulty is the lack of any operating history with which to confirm certain direction to on-site property personnel. The level of detail ranges from what move-in package to provide new apartment tenants, to whehver the property tax assessments should challenged for a current year.

In some cases, a property takeover will be a high-profile undertaking with a local community. Proper conduct of a takeover, especially with local governmental and media relations, can be a key factor in stabilizing a property for a successful long-term hold.

Retail Leasing Plans

In many cases, the owner of a complex retail asset may desire a formalized leasing business plan to be prepared and approved, prior to initiating a takeover or workout, or in initiating a following year leasing plan. Where a detailed leasing plan does exist, the property owner may be interested in a third-party review by retail leasing consultants such as Stonecreek LLC prior to plan implementation.

Workout Services

Stonecreek LLC work as retail leasing consultants can provide aggressive and hands-on assistance in workouts of distressed retail properties, focusing on tenant retention tactics and jump-start programs for new retail tenant leases. The scope and emphasis of the work product will vary based on the results of Stonecreek's initial Property Diagnostic Audit, or client-approved Asset or Portfolio Business Plan.

Tenant Deal Letters

Also referred to as a "letter of intent," such documents are important to both a Landlord and a Tenant involved in a tenant lease transaction. Given the length of time it takes to negotiate and execute a full lease document, most Landlords and Tenants use LOI's - or deal letters - to ascertain in an expeditious manner whether essential agreement exists for business terms of a potential lease. The comfort provided in a letter of intent can allow the parties to move forward. ... more