SAN FRANCISCO—Wouldn't it be convenient if someone had clear, intelligent answers to most of your CRE-related questions? Problem solved. Nina J. Gruen, a.k.a. Ms. Real Estate, a.k.a. the principal sociologist overseeing market research and analysis at Gruen Gruen + Associates, is here to answer readers' questions.

Dear Ms. Real Estate:

I own an 80,000-square-foot community shopping center located in a suburban community. My closest competitor is five miles away. Our town's current population is approximately 75,000, and is adding between 500 and 1,000 new residents annually. A four-year college is located not too distant from our center. Some of my tenants have lease renewals as of January 1, 2015, and quite a few more on January 1, 2016. Several have already indicated they are unlikely to renew their leases because both the recent Great Recession and Internet have hurt their bottom line. My largest tenant is CVS, which apparently is doing OK, and the center's overall occupancy is at 89%. What advice can you give me to help me survive the Internet age – particularly given the nearby younger population?

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Nina J. Gruen

Nina J.Gruen has been the Principal Sociologist in charge of market research and analysis at Gruen Gruen + Associates (GG+A) since co-founding the firm in 1970. Ms. Gruen applies the analytical techniques of the social sciences to estimating the demand for real estate and to understanding the culture of the groups who determine the success of development, planning, and public policy decisions. She is a pioneer in synthesizing the results of behavioral research with quantitative time-series data to forecast market reactions. Market and community attitude evaluations and programming studies led by Nina Gruen have resulted in the development and redevelopment of many retail, office, industrial, visitor, and residential projects, varying in scale from a single building to large single- and mixed-use projects.