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Equity One, Inc. has no plans of slowing down its rapid growth
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Equity Retail Brokers And Their Equity Retail Brokers manages retail real estate with a strong emphasis on the Philadelphia Metropolitan area, reaching deep into eastern Pennsylvania and central and southern New Jersey. For each county, the company has a real estate specialist that knows that area thoroughly. And, through partners in the Retail Brokers Network, Equity Retail Brokers is able to serve its clients throughout the mid-Atlantic Region.
Equity Retail Brokers is comprised of 15 involved brokers, while Retail Brokers Network has 29 brokerage companies comprising in its network. Equity Retail Brokers’ highest priority is to forge alliances that foster business growth, measuring its success by the success of its clients. Taking the time to understand its clients’ needs and expectations is the company’s specialty, as is developing resourceful site strategies and providing advice on real estate decisions and negotiations, leasing, tenant representation, investment sales and property management.
“The Retail Brokers Network is rapidly-growing, with experienced, qualified members who enjoy the benefits of referrals and the achievements that accompany soliciting business as a team,” says Rob Samtmann, a principal for Equity Retail Brokers. “Its members are successful, quick-moving, hungry firms who want to broadcast a message, and the Retail Brokers Network gives them a platform on which to do that as a team. And as a team, we have become a serious voice on the national stage – a voice worth listening to.”
Very experienced and very qualified indeed. With the company representing a number of retailers, among them being PNC Bank, Rite Aid, Ollies Bargain Outlet, Rita’s Italian Water Ice, STS Tire and Auto Centers, Fuddruckers, Any Garment Cleaners, Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, Frankford Associates, Inc., Ethan Allen, Hancock Fabrics, Verizon Wireless, Wendy’s and Pizzeria Uno. Equity Retail Brokers makes finding locations in the densely buildt-out tri-state market for such competitive users, each with such specific needs, seem uncomplicated. “All of the people at Equity Retail Brokers have deep market knowledge. We also have a system that’s different from other firms in that many of our brokers are county or geographic specialists, responsible to the office for the specific market knowledge in their geographic territories,” Samtmann explains. “So when PNC, for example, needs sites in southeastern Pennsylvania, we can sit all of the geographic specialists around the conference table, discuss the criteria and parameters of PNC’s branch stores, and within minutes have a survey of all of the matching sites in each area.”
The company also represents high-penetration retailers such as Rite-Aid, according to Samtmann, “who may build a store every 1.5 to two miles if the population density supports it, but only on a 1.5-acre site, at a corner with a traffic light, with high visibility, high traffic counts, and easy access. We also represent retailers like La-Z-Boy, who may want up to 20,000 sq.ft., but will only want stores in specific target markets, with much less penetration than a Rite Aid.”
According to the web site listings, Equity Retail Brokers’ portfolio contains a majority of sites for lease, as compared to for sale properties. As Samtmann tells it, “Most of the properties listed on our website are lease or development opportunities, because we move sale properties so quickly that they usually aren’t available long enough to get posted to the website. About one-third of our portfolio consists of properties for sale, but it changes quickly. We move very fast.”
With the company leasing a former Levitz in Reading, a former Pathmark in Warminster, a former Pet Supplies Plus in Chester County, PA and a former Gateway in Delaware County, PA, one must wonder if these sub-lease assignments are from the landlord or the tenant. “It varies on a case-by-case basis. We do both. We work directly for retailers and we do sub-lease assignments. In many cases, it’s not so much a sub-lease as a situation where the tenant wants to assign their lease and vacate the space, or they want to terminate their lease, so we’re trying to help them find a replacement. With Gateway, for example, Cressa Partners – their master broker – hired Equity to do work at the local level. This situation is where our geographic market expertise can be particularly helpful to national firms,” Samtmann explains.
Moving on to new construction, Equity Retail Brokers’ three largest development projects are The Shops at Ridge Road in Delaware County, where the company is confident about securing a grocery anchor in the near future. Other developments include Chadds Ford Plaza in Delaware County, which will deliver improved pads in the Fall 2007, and the Shoppes at Morgantown in Berks County, which began construction this summer and is now in the pre-leasing stage. The company’s existing projects range from eastern Pennsylvania to southern New Jersey, run the gamut of densely populated mature markets such as Philadelphia and the surrounding counties, to the many growing, emerging markets throughout the region.
Properties in which Equity Retail Brokers serves as the property manager are Abington Shopping Center and Noble Towne Center. Located in Abington PA, the Abington Shopping Center is anchored by a Clemens supermarket, while the Jenkintown, PA-based Noble Town Center is anchored by Old Navy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Walgreens and PetSmart. “As a company, we made the choice to focus our property management services on owners who take pride in maintaining quality real estate or those who are looking to reposition their property,” Samtmann explains. “Abington Shopping Center and Noble Towne Center are reflective of our desire to manage quality real estate.”
Despite the sometimes-fickle actions the world of real estate can make, Equity Retail Brokers are remaining optimistic toward the tri-state market. “We continue to see a strong, very positive, vibrant market – both in the dense Philadelphia market and in the emerging markets of Chester and Montgomery Counties. However, we have to keep a cautious eye towards consumer spending. We look forward to new retailers entering the market and the beginning of new projects in 2007,” Samtmann states.
For more information, contact Rob Samtmann, Equity Retail Brokers, 101 West Elm Street, Suite 370, Conshohocken, PA 19438; 484-417-2208; Email: rsamtmann@equityretailbrokers.com ; Web site: www.equityretailbrokers.com . |