Shopping Center Management – Tips for Creating the Ideal Tenant Mix and Retail Offering
In retail real estate leasing, the anchor tenants in a shopping center have a great level of appeal in attracting the smaller tenants to the tenant mix. Choose your anchor tenants wisely and understand what value they bring to the property. Build you lease marketing campaign around your anchor tenants.
So the key question is, ‘What anchor tenants will attract the right customers to the property?’ You can choose typically between discount department stores, supermarkets (large and small), cinemas, bowling alleys, and upmarket department stores.
You may of course need more than just a single anchor tenant based on the size of the property and the customer mix. The placement of the anchor tenants will usually be at the corners of the property so that customers walk past the specialty tenants. Plan the access points and the mall thoroughfares in the property so you give good exposure to the specialty tenants and the anchors.
Shopper Focus?
The shoppers to the retail property will have a focus when they shop. That could be:
- Convenience
- Recreation and entertainment
- Community involvement
- Services access
- Goods purchase
The choice of tenants across the tenant mix should then be designed around the customers to the property and their needs.
Choose Your Retail Tenants Wisely
You can select specialty tenants to place around the anchor tenants and the customer needs in the local area. Those specialty tenants will be in one or more of the following:
- Books, Cards, Newsagent
- Car wash
- Dry cleaning, Shore Repairs, Key Cutting
- Electrical
- Fashion (sales, hire, accessories)
- Ladies Fashion
- Mens Fashion
- Childrens Fashion
- Youth Fashion
- Mixed Fashion
- Footware (mens, ladies, youth, sports)
- Financial services (banks, ATM’s)
- Professional services (solicitors, accountants, etc)
- Automatic Tellers
- Fresh Food (fruit, vegetables, meat, smallgoods, fish, chicken, etc)
- Food Takeaway
- Giftware and Stationery
- Hairdressing and Beauty Services
- Luggage and Handbags
- Homewares and Lifestyle
- Jewellery
- Legal services
- Liquor Sales
- Music
- Medical and Dental Services
- Optical Glasses
- Chemists or Pharmacies
- Restaurants
- Sports and Fitness
- Telecommunications and Mobile Phones
- Computing and IT Sales
- Toys and Hobbies
- Travel
So what factors of attraction could an anchor tenant create for a retail shopping center? Try some of these:
- Customer base – The local area and the customer catchment for the property will largely be dictated by the size of the property, be it a neighbourhood shopping center, or a regional center.
- Marketing variation – The anchor tenant will be boosting the marketing of the property through direct customer promotion.
- Repeat visits and Sales generation – Customers will keep coming back to the property for multiple purchases over time.
- Branding – The anchor tenant will bring a brand or identity to the property.
A good shopping center design offers variation, convenience and comfort. You can get plenty of tenant mix ideas by reviewing other retail properties in your location.
