IRVINE, CA—The “mild, but consistent recovery” that the national retail sector has been experiencing will be a major topic of discussion at ICSC RECon later this month, predicts Rick Chichester, president and CEO of Faris Lee Investments. GlobeSt.com sat down with Chichester recently and got his take on trends in the sector, how today's consumers are changing the face of retail and where the biggest investment opportunities are for retail properties.

GlobeSt.com: What would ICSC attendees want to know about Faris Lee Investments?

Chichester: Faris Lee is a national investment advisory firm that focuses solely on the retail property segment, inclusive of single tenant, NNN, sale-leaseback, multi-tenant and mixed use. We have expanded and grown substantially over the past several years. To that end, we underwrite more than 300 properties annually, and we have sold more than 280 properties in 39 states in the past 24 months. We are a focused and collaborative firm, and we take an extremely disciplined and thoughtful approach in our underwriting, valuations, and go-to-market strategies. We're not the largest platform nationally, by intention, so we are not going to bring the army to the table. Instead, we bring the “special ops”—a team of highly skilled specialists with financial and marketing intellect and creativity. We work together and support each other on every assignment. The client benefits by having his project exposed to some of the best and most creative minds in the business.