As a smart landlord, you likely keep your eye on the latest trends in brick-and-mortar business. Scanning the latest headlines, keeping up with industry blogs, and figuring out which types of retailers seem to be thriving in spite of the current pandemic is par for the course when you own commercial real estate.
Naturally, brands that are trending may pique your interest as a viable new tenant. And if you use a retail tenant database like Retailsphere, you can keep an even closer eye on these trends by looking for brands tagged as expanding or trending. In fact, Retailsphere delivers a curated feed of industry news on our front page for this very purpose.
But tenants aren’t one size fits all. Even if a trendy new retailer seems to be doing great—they may not be an automatic win for your space. Here’s how you can make sure a potential tenant is a good fit.
For our purposes, we’ll take a look at the national pizza chain, Papa John’s. Latest reports have Papa John’s sales up in 2020 by 24%, and the company is hiring tens of thousands more employees. Bringing on a strong, tried-and-true chain like Papa John’s seems like a no brainer. If you are using Retailsphere, you may want to take a look at their profile before deciding to approach a franchisee about your vacant space. Simply use our search functionality and select the franchisor profile as a starting place.
As you can see below, Retailsphere lists Papa John’s growth status as “Iconic.” Growth status is one of many ways we make your search to find other brands that are growing quickly as easy as possible. But to make sure this is a real win, you need to look deeper.
Consideration of any new tenant should always begin with a list of your current tenants. Would Papa John’s threaten their business? Would they be in direct competition? If not, take a look at the Expansion Plans section of the profile. You’ll learn quickly what demographics, location size, and location preferences a brand has. If your space meets that criteria, you can reach out to a direct contact. But you may want to look a little further before you take that step.
Using the Map View allows you to view all current locations of a brand. This will allow you to see the saturation of the brand in your area. You can also view past locations. Has the brand tried to expand in your area before, and not been successful?
The Nearest Competitors map allows you to filter for area businesses that may compete with the brand you’re looking to rent to. While “Italian” and “Pizza” are both easy ways to discover rivals for Papa John’s, you may also want to branch out and search for nearby restaurants of other types. Toggling between “Multi Unit Groups,” “Franchisors,” and “National Brands” can help you find smaller, local competitors as well as big-name rivals.
Finally, to get the straight facts on if leasing to a specific brand is a fiscally smart move, check out the Financials section of a profile. Here you’ll find important key metrics on income and cash flow, as well as traffic counts, and if everything lines up with your current needs, you can reach out to the brand directly to start talking about how to make them a tenant.
Interested in a trending brand or niche of business, but not finding the information you need in Retailsphere? We are always working to bring you the most up-to-date data and brand contacts. Open a search request within Retailsphere, and our team will help you with the research. Schedule your no-obligation demo today to see the power of Retailsphere and how it can help make your tenant search simpler than ever.
