Retail Retold

On today’s show, Chris sits down with Wade Laufenberg who has almost 30 years of experience in retail real estate under his belt. You’ll love the story Wade, VP of Real Estate, shares about Bealls Outlet, which has 450 stores in 16 states. Previously, the Bealls Outlet location in Bradenton, FL was on a sublease of Office Depot. Knowing the lease was coming to an end and Office Depot wouldn't exer...

In the summer of 2008, John Tucker approached Marc Miles and Seth Hirschel with a business plan to open a healthy fast-casual Mexican restaurant that was absent in the Westchester County, New York. They founded Salsa Fresca shortly after, opening its first restaurant in Millerton, N.Y., with an open kitchen concept while using fresh, quality ingredients. Fast forward, Salsa Fresca now has 10 locat...

On today’s show, Chris interviews Beth Azor who currently owns and manages six shopping centers in Florida. Beth tells a fantastic story of the success of a local mom and pop store, CanesWear.  About six years ago, Beth spots a store about a mile away from her Shoppes at Arrowhead shopping center that sells apparel merchandise for the University of Miami sports teams. Immediately seeing the potent...

New Jersey is notorious for its restrictive laws governing who can sell alcohol. Those laws limit the supply of licenses based on population - one liquor license per 5,000 residents. Because of such restrictions, many liquor licenses in New Jersey are bought from existing license holders. In places where demand is high, licenses can sell for $1million or more – if they are available at all. ...

Not everyone loves the process of signing a commercial lease because it is often complicated and sometimes painfully lengthy. But in this episode, Jeff Gray, VP of Real Estate at Hibbett Sports, tells a story that defies such a perception. He goes on to share the most unusual negotiation process that took place behind this deal and it is something he has never experienced in his 29 year career in...

Sister duo Ashley Dellavalle Jung and Paige Dellavalle Walker have been seen by millions on Shark Tank. After successfully pitching their jewelry business to the Sharks in 2013, the sisters, who are also West Point grads and retired soldiers, have opened their first Stella Valle pop up store in Flemington, NJ. The key takeaway from this episode:   Why digitally native brands like Stella...

Demand for accessible and affordable urgent care clinics has been growing rapidly. According to the Urgent Care Association (UCA), the total number of urgent care centers in the U.S. has increased by eight percent from the previous year. In this episode, Aaron Zucker of Zucker Investment Group tells his remarkable story of turning a vacant KFC into a brand new AFC urgent care in Fuquay-Varina, NC.

Did you know that the Walmart Supercenter at Crossgate Commons in Albany, NY was the biggest Supercenter in the world when it opened in May 2008? This Walmart location was also the first two-story Supercenter to open in the United States. Building the first two-story Supercenter wasn’t an easy process as planning and construction needed to consider all things new such as installing a special escal...

Walgreens had a void in the Paterson marketplace which it was eagerly looking to fill. However, land availability, especially the size required by the standard Walgreens footprint, was not readily available in urban marketplaces such as Paterson. In this episode, Al Callegari, DLC Management’s Senior Vice President of Development & Third Party Services, tells the behind the scenes of this proj...

In our debut episode, we chat with Josh Goldstein, Director of Real Estate at Pet Supplies Plus, the third-largest specialty pet food retailer in the US. In this interview, we tackle a number of tough topics: Does increasing customer dwell time lead to profits? How do you know you’re making the right decision when entering new markets? Is commercial real estate more of an art than a science? After...