(Save the date: RealShare Apartments comes to the Westin Bonaventure, Los Angeles, October 24.)
LOS ANGELES-With roughly 55 million Latinos in the US, amounting to roughly 15% of the total population, many owners of retail property are jumping on the bandwagon of leasing to Hispanic retailers. This is a smart move, but knowing the customs, values and buying preferences of different Latino cultures and age groups within those cultures is essential to success among this demographic, says Arturo Sneider, CEO of locally based Primestor Development.
Sneider tells GlobeSt.com that he co-created the Spanish initiative for ICSC a couple of years ago with two things in mind: 1. a strong focus on educating retailers about the Latino community and having them understand the scale and size of the market, and 2. promoting the hiring and participation of more Latinos in our industry. He is set to speak at this week’s Hispanic Markets National Conference here on the value of this market segment.
“In 2009, the birth rate of Latinos in this country surpassed the immigration rate,” Sneider tells GlobeSt.com. “This population is the faster-growing in the country by far, and for the first time, the number of Latino people being born here is matching the number of people who are immigrating here.”
Still, leasing blindly to any Hispanic retailer is not the way for property owners to be successful, he says. “Look carefully at the data. How dense is your community and what generation is the makeup of the community? Marketing strategies can be potentially different depending on whether it is first-generation Latin American, second-, third- or fourth.”
For example, first-generation Latin Americans are much more steeped in their country of origin and have brought those traditions, customs and values to the US. They are less likely to be influenced by American culture than third- or fourth-generation Latin Americans. And while the later generations have assimilated more into the culture, Sneider says most are still very proud of their heritage and are comfortable showing their pride by buying products that display that culture.
Also, the term Hispanic or Latino is not a homogenous one. “The word Hisipanic became utilized by the Census Bureau, but it really talks about people of all countries and origins,” says Sneider. “Latinos in Miami or New Jersey will be very different from those in Los Angeles, Dallas and other parts of the country. They use different words for the same things in different countries, and the same word can mean different things in different countries. The types of events that you have, the holidays you celebrate, the foods you eat are all different.”
He adds that there has been a proliferation of successful Latino grocers in this country—for instance, as GlobeSt.com previously reported exclusively, in September Highpoint Capital LLC purchased Palmdale Gateway, a 100,000-square-foot, shopping center anchored by a successful Vallarta supermarket—but whether these retailers target, say, Salvadorian or Cuban customers matters. “You have to be sensitive to that, and also the kind of shopping center you develop and the amenities you offer—that has a lot to do with the generation you have and of course the income levels, too.”
Sneider emphasizes the importance of property owners learning which cultures reside in their market and what their particular customs and cultures are so that they can bring in the right Hispanic retail mix to their properties.
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Carrie Rossenfeld
Carrie Rossenfeld is a reporter for the San Diego and Orange County markets on GlobeSt.com and a contributor to Real Estate Forum. She was a trade-magazine and newsletter editor in New York City before moving to Southern California to become a freelance writer and editor for magazines, books and websites. Rossenfeld has written extensively on topics including commercial real estate, running a medical practice, intellectual-property licensing and giftware. She has edited books about profiting from real estate and has ghostwritten a book about starting a home-based business.
