One of the more interesting discussions we had at last week's ICSC Western Division conference was with Fred Collings, senior vice president of retail leasing at the Irvine Co. Collings gave us an overview of his firm's 36 neighborhood centers and three regional assets in the Irvine Ranch, a large swath of land developed by the firm that takes up nearly a third of Orange County.
Here are some takeaways from what he had to share:
On how landlords select tenants in this environment: "Everyone is making sure the transactions work based on the sales transactions. We've got to be able to do the sale to make the business mode be effective. It's behoovent of us landlords to make sure we have the appropriate data to expect what we think sales should be."
On the coming election and other macro issues: Those are things we can't necessarily control. We just have to manage our business well."
On the overall attitude about how the industry is faring: "The mood is certainly better. Everybody's willing to jump back in the water and look at stuff a couple years ago that they wouldn't."
On deals he has with about 20 retailers that would open in 2014: "Our planning and our processes are so long term, we tend to forge ahead on the assumption that things will be stable or better. You have to assume that the economy is not going to derail that."
On giving rent concessions to tenants: "Depending on the strength of the financial statement, it causes any landlord to evaluate how much they can invest in that retailer. You're not going to make a significant tenant allowance contribution to a weak financial picture."
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