"The Right Mix" Article in Shopping Center Business

I love the so called "consultants" (and I use that term loosely) who blow their own horn and promote "projects" they are involved in. In the recent edition of Shopping Center Business, Jeff Green a California based consultant gives us these wonderful examples of how tenant mix effects project viability and how location and market demographics matter...well DUH! Mr Green uses projects in which he (or his company) were involved and in my mind shamelessly promotes.

If these projects are so well executed as he suggests, then there would be no need for self promotion. He also confuses the terms "lifestyle center" and "Mixed-Use" development as two distinctly separate entities when they are in fact one and the same. The terms are interchangeable.

Mr. Green is not alone when it comes to self promotion and trying to create buzzwords and catchphrases in areas in which they are not experts. They hide behind facade's, speak double talk, and use fancy cliche's to speak the obvious. Unfortunately these types gather readily gullible followers which drives there business model.

Further, I have an issue with Mr. Green's closing argument's titled "Avoid Easy Mistakes" in which he chastises leasing representatives efforts in this market and uses the term "opportunistic leasing".

It's executive stuffed shirts like him that cannot think outside the box and hide behind terms like "prestige" and "high-end" using them as excuses for not solving vacancy issues. Well Mr. Green, the last time I looked this market is contracting at an accelerated pace and your so called "high end-prestigious" tenants are dropping like flies. Your suggestion of not going after lesser tenants (in your view) is just flat out wrong.

Guru's like yourself are often too slow to react in markets like this. Where is it written that lease terms have to be 5 years or more? Particularly on second generation space? I'd be derelict in my fiduciary duties to my owners if I followed your advice. My job is to create revenue and increase the NOI.

While I tend to agree with your assessment that you must be careful about tenant selection, to totally categorize interested prospects into the "haves and have-nots" and it's effect on the perceived prestige of your center is extremely short sighted.

In my opinion, there is absolutely nothing wrong with bringing in a tenant that you may have not considered before. Sign them to a short term lease of 3 years which allows you to reassess the market conditions near the end of the term. There is nothing that says one must re-sign them or give them long term option periods.

Further, when you put this into context of current market climate, second generation space requirements, and filling space, these are optimal conditions for experimenting. You never know, you may just have signed the next big thing and it costs you practically nothing.

I hope that you and others like you continue to waste your time writing articles and blowing your own horns. I'll just continue to make money for my ownership, after all that is what we do, right? (Or at least that's what I do!)