EQUITY RETAIL BLOG

Restaurant for Lease: Six Considerations when Leasing Second-Generation Space

“When it comes to a restaurant for lease, the best strategy is to be the second operator in that space.” The sage advice above comes from a veteran commercial real estate investor out of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania—one of many experienced restaurateurs who avoids building from scratch whenever choosing sites for a new restaurant for lease. The […]

How to Find a Retail Store for Rent (Part 3): Negotiating the Deal

So far in this series, we’ve covered some of the key considerations involved in how to find a retail store for rent — from conducting your initial web research, to scouting sites in person, to consulting with expert retail brokers on critical factors such as location, traffic, visibility and retail market rents. Now let’s take […]

How to Find a Retail Store for Rent (part 2)

When looking for a retail store for rent, Starbucks pays careful attention to access, visibility, co-tenancy, and other critical factors. Smaller entrepreneurs should do the same—whether a beginner looking to open his or her first store or restaurant, or an experienced franchisee aiming for unit growth in a new territory. The wrinkle here: Independent and […]

How to Find a Retail Store for Rent

The fundamentals of finding a retail store for rent haven’t changed, and growth opportunities continue to drive the expansion of pandemic-resistant franchises and independently operated stores, fast food chains, quick-service restaurants. At Equity Retail Brokers, we use the latest tools and rely on decades of experience to help business owners find high-performing space for rent. What […]

How Does a Franchisee Find a Retail Space to Rent?

Franchisees continue to hunt for stores for rent across the commercial real estate markets of eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. While these operators play a critical role in retail real estate, Equity Retail Brokers Principals David Goodman and Rob Samtmann have observed that not all franchisees take a professional approach to site-selection. The veteran […]

Tenant Rep Brokers Wear Many Hats—and Some of Them May Surprise You

What is retail tenant representation all about? At a high level, the job description is simple: Find great real estate for your clients, push for favorable lease terms—and seal the deal. And yet that broad overview doesn’t actually capture the nuance and complexity involved in professional tenant representation. Tenant rep brokers wear many hats. Even […]

Is force majeure a reason to break a commercial lease?

With the onset of the global pandemic, questions related to lease clauses involving force majeure—literally, “superior force” but often interpreted as “acts of God”—loom in retail real estate: Does the pandemic qualify as a force majeure event? If so, are tenants justified in declining to pay rent? What protection do these clauses provide to landlords? […]

Avoid This Common Mistake Made by Investors in Like-Kind Exchanges

In a prior blog post, our colleague Margo McDonnell, whose 1031 Corp specializes in 1031 tax-deferred exchanges, covered some of the basics associated with this nearly century-old tax incentive. But once you’re clear on questions like “What is a like kind exchange?” or “Is a like kind exchange the same as a 1031 exchange?”, the […]

Trending Real Estate: Mixed-use Developments

The mixed-use mantra of “live, work, play” continues to drive development and redevelopment across the commercial real estate markets of Philadelphia. Growing urban and suburban population density is a major factor, but changing attitudes also figure prominently: Members of the Millennial and Gen Z generations tend to look askance at living in single-family housing developments […]

How to Open Your Second and Third Retail Locations

By Rob Samtmann Retail real estate is a long game. Brokers, landlords, retailers and other stakeholders need to think carefully, not just about present-day market conditions, but also about future ones. Despite the admittedly daunting effects of the Covid-19 virus, any veteran of the business (I’ve been a broker in Philadelphia since 1997) knows one […]