One Landlord’s Retail Properties Weather the Storm

While some companies have struggled throughout the pandemic, Asana Partners, a private equity platform headquartered in Charlotte, has weathered the storm.

“I think that our portfolio has fared relatively well from an operating results point of view,” Terry Brown, managing partner of Asana, told listeners on a recent CBRE podcast. “We’ve been pretty much right on top of the results reported by some of the higher quality public companies in the space.”

Over the past six years, Asana has invested in roughly 30 mixed-use projects in 13 states across the country. Brown says the company’s results varied across locations and neighborhoods. While the CBD struggled, many properties near urban areas held their own.

“If you look at places like the South End in Charlotte or the Beltline in Atlanta or even Old Town Alexandria [in Virginia], the people who are home working from home tended to support the retailers in their neighborhoods,” Brown says. “So I think it depends on location.”

Also, Brown thinks local retailers became more entrepreneurial when their livelihoods were at stake. They moved quickly to adopt apps or other technology to stay in business. “It’s different when an individual owns a store, too, and they support their family out of that store versus some of the bigger chains,” Brown says.

Brown does think COVID’s decentralization of the workforce can create new retail opportunities. “During the pandemic, you saw innovation,” he says. “You saw people forced to do things. You saw one generation really start to move away and out of the business. And you saw a new young generation of retailers take advantage of technology, innovation [and] creativity. I think that gives me a lot of hope for retail, especially retail as it relates to mixed-use, going forward.”

Asana has continued to stay active, recently purchasing Larimer Square, an almost $90 million asset in Denver. The company likes Denver because of its proximity to the Southwest and West Coast. As Asana looks to renovate Larimer, it will mix the preservation of buildings with older facades with technology.

“We’re really bullish on Denver,” Brown says. “We think Larimer is very well known. We think we have a really good plan to innovate and keep it current. It’s been around for 150 years, so we want to make sure that we continue to help it evolve.”

Asana has also invested in an Opportunity Zone area in Deep Ellum, Texas. But he says that the neighborhood was improving before the OZ investments. When Asana has struggled, Brown says it’s because the company has tried to create energy in an area itself.

“I think our experience as a company is we can take something that has energy and accelerate the energy,” Brown says.

Despite the stresses created by COVID, Brown is optimistic about the future. While its shape may change, he doesn’t think retail is going anywhere. “Retail has been part of the American dream for 250, 260 years now,” Brown says.