Retail Brokerage Group Strikes Deal With Broadband Provider

VIENNA, VA-A Tysons Corner brokerage has teamed up with a startup broadband provider to wire strip malls and bring them into the digital age. Chain Links Retail Advisors, based here, the nation’s largest retail brokerage group, has signed up Miami-based MyShoppingCenter.com as its exclusive partner to provide broadband, Web site and other telecommunications services to the owners and tenants it represents.

The deal gives the new company access to 1,500 retail properties that Chain Links represents. The firm will earn royalties on services that MyShoppingCenter will provide, and has taken a warrant to buy equity in the new company, but would not disclose terms of the deal.

Chain Links officials believe it represents a fast way to bring broadband to retail sites. Despite the need for broadband services, retail centers have been largely overlooked as real estate and telecommunications companies rush to wire office buildings. “There hasn’t been the cost-justification for putting that fat pipe into a shopping center,” says Troy Peple, president of Chain Links.