Chickie’s & Pete’s in Marlton, NJ with Brian Finnegan

Guest: Brian Finnegan
Topics: Chickie’s & Pete’s, Brixmor, restaurant industry

Transcript:

Chris Ressa 0:01
This is retail retold the story of how that store ended up in your neighborhood. I’m your host, Chris ReSSA. And I invite you to join my conversation with some of the retail industry’s biggest influencers. This podcast is brought to you by DLC management.

Welcome to retail retold everyone today we have Brian Finnegan. Brian is the Chief Revenue Officer of bricks more Property Group. Brian is a friend confidant and I’m excited for him to be here. Thanks for being on Brian.

Yeah, thanks for having me. You know, we’ve been connecting a lot here over the past few months. And it’s good to finally join the show. And

Brian Finnegan 0:44
I’ve been watching everything come through on LinkedIn. So I always hear and really appreciate you having me on.

Ressa 0:51
Awesome. So Brian, I think you you have an interesting story. Why don’t you tell people you know, a little bit about your career and what your what you are doing today?

Finnegan 1:05
Yeah, so I’ve been pretty fortunate. I’ve been here at bricks more for for 16 years, I got into the industry. I actually had a friend, Brian Wardian equity retail brokers in Philadelphia is still there, still a partner there. We went to high school together. And he had gotten randomly into retail real estate brokerage in 2002. Right after college, and I was working in a family company

basically doing a litigation support service. My aunt’s company, which my my mom’s that as well. And you know, Brian was he just got into this business and he was working with I didn’t even know anything about shopping centers. And he was working helping expand PNC Bank in Philadelphia and working with a bunch of cool restaurant concepts. And I was really interested in that was when we’re thinking of the early 2000s. Right, a lot was getting built. He’s heading to this big conference in Las Vegas. And it was just really interesting. So I looked at it a little bit, I wound up getting into brokerage and another company in Philadelphia, and then put the over the course of about a year and a half. You build up a small business and wound up putting a couple restaurants into what at the time was a company called Kmart Realty trust shopping centers and and then joining the company there in 2004. At the time, we were about 95 properties and 12 million square feet. And then over the course of that we were purchased by centro, which was an Australian company. And over the course of of two and a half years, went to 750 properties and 110 million square feet. So a lot of growth was really fortunate to be on the team that was there at the beginning. So we kind of grew with them. And then you know that central went through some financial issues right before the GFC wound up effectively having to do like outside of court bankruptcy, if you will. And we were controlled by the lenders. You know, through this time, I take in various roles and lived in a few cities. At the time I was in Atlanta overseeing our development. Once we cut a deal with our lenders, I moved out to California I was overseeing our San Diego office there, which is 40 senators in an in kind of an asset management, President type of role in that in that portfolio. And then we were purchased by Blackstone in 2000. I’m condensing a lot of this we were purchased by Blackstone and in 2011, they really recapitalized The company took us public. We went public at about 518 shopping centers were sitting around 400 today, and it’s been it’s been a good ride, then they’ve really fortunate to, like I said, spend some time in a bunch of different cities, mostly through leasing. And now I oversee the revenue team here, which is, you know, our regional leasing teams, the regional structure that we have, as well as your work with our national account group, our marketing team and our specialty leasing team. So it’s been a it’s been fun, I’ve been really fortunate.

Ressa 4:25
So based on the size and how companies are structured, by my math, and this is on the side, this isn’t like a public number, but in an open air landlord setting, I think you probably oversee the largest leasing team in America. I think that gives you a lot of perspective. You’re in a lot of different markets, you’re in a lot of different tenants. You’re with a lot of different property types. So that leads me into what’s going on in the world out there today. We’ve we’ve come through This pandemic, we’re still in it. We have an election. And a lot of things have gone on in 2020. It’s a hard question, but what’s going on in the state of retail or the state of real estate, take it out, you want to take it

Finnegan 5:16
for just the confidence piece, I do appreciate, you know, the conversations that you and I have had over this. I think you were one of the first people I spoke to when this when this whole thing started. And it’s good to have peers and and people you can, you know, talk through that are facing similar issues. And I think there’s a lot of folks that are listening to this, in retail real estate that that have had a lot of challenges, both on the retailer and landlord side. We’ve been pretty encouraged the last few months. And I really appreciate we had our earnings call today. And we talked about on the call, just kind of the pivot that our team has made from some really tough, tough discussions that we’re having with many of our closest partners, where those individuals were used to just talking about new deals and talking about arguing over rent, and now it got into a much more challenging conversation. So to be able to then pivot from that and, and move towards new leasing activity as quickly as they have. We were really excited about I’m really grateful for for the team. I think, look, what’s there’s there’s real bifurcation that we’re seeing any any open airspace. And I’d be interested to get your view as well on it is, you think about the categories that have continued to excel. And whether that’s specialty grocery, whether that’s home, whether those are fast, casual restaurants, and then also many of the categories where they may have been closed, like some general merchandise operators, some of the value apparel guys who have now reopened and just accelerated store opening plans. It’s it’s been encouraging not to say we still have the challenges ahead of us, because we certainly do, there’s going to be a lot more tenant failures. You think about categories, like sit down restaurants and entertainment and the fitness sector. We’re expecting more, but we’ve been just encouraged on what we’ve seen from the operators that have continued to perform fairly well. You know, thankfully, we both own I mean, you mentioned multiple property types. We just don’t open air shopping centers saying yeah, yeah. So but you can see, I mean, we have we were really flexible format, right? We have large parking fields, where we can give multiple tenants the ability to do curbside pickup, we have the ability to develop our parcel buildings and, and reposition our shopping centers. I mean, our our buildings are fairly easy to be to reposition. So I think from that perspective, we’re we’re encouraged. You know, in talking to many of the retailers, the categories that are that are doing well, they certainly remain cautious. But you know, we’re seeing a fair amount of activity. It’s been encouraging for what we’ve seen coming out of the summer. How about on your end?

Ressa 8:23
Yeah, I think you hit on a lot of the categories. I think that the leasing activities picked up, there’s definitely grocery was growing. But there’s a lot of specialty grocery and grocery happening now, which is exciting. You know, we were fortunate we turned days, we bought a center in August of 19, where in February of this year, Kmart was still the tenant. And now it’s you know, it’s Lidl, Ali’s Harbor Freight tools, and we have one more vacancy. So we turned a non grocery anchored center into a grocery anchored center, you know, had the good fortune to get a nice rent lift on the, you know, from the Kmart basis. So, and that’s happening through the pandemic, and you would have thought, right, we bought it the wrong time we bought in August of 19, but not the case in that scenario. So I think you know, we’re really happy with leasing activity can always want more I think tenant demand is is one of the things I would say is the tenants that were the the centers that felt really strong pre COVID there like cooking with gas, it the senators that were challenged pre COVID There’s still there’s still challenges. I think that’s a punch line that I’ve realized so you know the fundamentals of real estate still matter, right? Access, visibility, demographics, all those good things. I don’t I don’t think COVID change that. I think that on the what you mentioned, we both have a lot of just value retail tenants and And I think it’s really hard to provide that value in a shopping center that has a roof over it with that keeps and cools the common area. And I think it’s really hard to provide that value through E commerce and the retailer make money. So I feel I feel really well positioned in that in that scenario. And you’re starting to see, you know, interesting uses, whether it’s, you know, really want to get closer to the consumer and who’s closer to the consumer, that’s retail real estate, whether that’s health care, you know, self storage, and there’s a lot of ways as you said, the real estate’s flexible so I, you know, one of the things i i think the lack of supply in just vacant land in markets where we own and the demand for free standing out parcels is definitely interesting. And I’m waiting to see how that plays out over the course of 2021 is just see, you know, what really gets built in what happens because clearly demand there is pretty strong. Yeah,

Finnegan 11:07
the off parcel, our peripheral NT, is on fire with the outparcel demand from the likes of you mentioned medical Chipotle, the Chick Fil A’s of the world, we started doing this tenant Spotlight Series, and we had the Popeyes Tim Hortons guys on and just I mean, our Popeyes activity throughout the portfolio has been fantastic. So we basically have a retail or command and not just for our leasing team, we bring the portfolio review kind of into our company, it’s one of the things that we’ve one of the best practices that we put in place the assemblers on our peripheral land team had the idea for it, and basically just does a portfolio review with and like goes through in our teams asking questions or reps are calling or chatting from the field asking live questions. But you know, coming out of that, and he’s got like, half a dozen deals in the in the pipeline with those guys. So that’s been encouraging, raising, I mean, you just you’re seeing a lot of those categories from an out parcel perspective. And then just overall, I mean, the one thing that I think this has taught us is the importance of having goods close to the consumer. And you’re spot on and your point, it’s a lot cheaper to make that sale in a physical store than it is online, or delivering it. So it’ll be insane. And then heading into the holidays. Look, those retailers that have that have really focused on that omni channel strategy, and we’re expecting to do pretty well.

Ressa 12:42
Yeah, yeah, I bucketed, I told the team, I kind of have three things that retailers learned. And I’m kind of thinking through as the, you know, the pandemic, is, you know, as they got through the pandemic, and we get into the holidays, I think, you know, I told I told my wife, I think inventory is going to be something they’re very focused on, nobody wants to get caught with seasonal goods stuck in the store, like they did in March. So I told my wife, if you see it, buy it now, because it’ll be out of stock. And, too, I found interesting that there’s a lot of retailers who are looking to who I’ve been adding things that would deem them essential and a second wave closure. So that’s really interesting. And we’ll see how that plays out. And then three, all the things that they’ve done from a tech perspective in the store for the experience, from the high end retailers down to the whether that’s fine line pickup, and Servcorp, curbside, whatever it is all those tech things. So those are the three things I think, and then I’m kind of paying attention to

Finnegan 13:51
what’s interesting, I heard something really, really distinct from national retailer this week thinking about, you know, potential of of a second wave and what they were what was happening in terms of if there were, you know, more space limitations or things like that, like we’re seeing in some places still with restaurants. And when he said to me was at least now we have a playbook. He said, Yeah, but under this the first time, not that it’s not going to be impactful to us, and it’s not going to hurt our business. But we have a playbook. And I think that for all of us, we’ve learned so much during this. I know we have as a company. Yeah, for sure. Stuff that we were talking about the beginning in terms of connectivity and and how we’re running our assets and the retailers have as well. So it doesn’t mean that there’s not going to still be challenges and there’s potential obstacles out there. But I think you know, what people have learned during this, even restaurants that have gotten much better at delivery, right. That was kind of a secondary part of their business before. I think some of the things that are have been learned are going to be really important going forward.

Ressa 15:00
That’s a great point for sure. Yeah, that is a, that is a good point. I actually, it’s funny, you mentioned it, because one of the guests we had on, and I don’t know if you know, I’m Greg Baker, he’s the head of real estate for Chico’s. He’s also their general counsel there. And so and we’re not a landlord of Chico’s. But I had him on I thought it was interesting perspective. And he was like, you know, it’s, it’s easy to close stores, it’s really hard to reopen them. And he was going through how he went to reopening the stores. And, you know, but now they know how to do it. Right now they know what they have to do they have a playbook. So anyway, what else is going on in retail real estate? Anything else? That’s the the leasing side, anything else you’re seeing out there? That’s of interest?

Finnegan 15:51
No, I mean, look, we’re, you know, obviously, just figuring out within our centers, you know, how we can how we can utilize our common areas more whether it’s whether we’re outdoor dining place setting, we’re certainly looking at that as best we can across the board to assist our tenants, I heard not just from a restaurant from a retailer who was talking about lines of holidays. And he’s like, we don’t we’ve run our capacity limitations in the store. And we don’t want our people freezing outside. So can we put space heaters out there. And we’ve seen it from restaurants. And I’m sure you see it in your town to see it here in mind. But I was interesting to me like, wow, they’re even thinking of because he’s like, look to hit our sales threshold, we have to get more people through the door. So we’re kind of figuring out how we can implement some of that. And then look continuing to find different ways to to connect with our retail partners. It’s as you know, as a people business, we used to be on flights a lot going to a bunch of different Yeah, conferences, you asked me about the a goon, we were just chatting before this, about the the personal interaction aspect. I mean, it’d be great to be doing this, you know, sitting in OAC, in Nashville, right? Yeah, totally, now that that shift, and so how we can do, whether it’s meetups or properties we’ve had, Hi, Josh, and our head of operations is had a great program here at bricks more where, you know, people that aren’t in operations are signing up to just go check out the properties, if they’re there in their neighborhood, right, somebody in the accounting group, or somebody in the Legal Group is stopping by, and it’s getting them out. That’s understanding our business. But I think that’s great focus on our side of, of just getting out and getting to the properties a lot more. And I think from just the leasing standpoint, you know, look, it’s, it’s gonna be a, this is going to be a proactive leasing environment, right? It’d be, we’re not expecting the phone to just continue to ring I mean, there’s going to be a lot of there’s going to be a tremendous opportunity, right, there’s going to be people that are looking to relocate their businesses, there’s going to be people that may be having issues with their existing landlord, it creates an opportunity. So you got to be in the store, you got to get out there and understand those markets and what’s happening, there’s going to be because of store closures opportunities for people to move. So we’re really reinforcing that with with our team safely. Obviously, each municipality is a bit different. But getting back out there and, and seeing our real estate and really, making sure that we’re getting in and seeing retailers in those markets is is key and, and then just in terms of the retailer reviews that we’ve been doing. While the personal interaction aspect hasn’t hasn’t it’s been missed. I mean, it’s you can get a lot done when you’re on a call like this, right? You have site plans up and you can share Yeah, that kind of stuffs been good. So there’s been some positives to it as well. So

Ressa 19:02
awesome. All right. Well, that’s been that’s a really good update of what’s going on right now. But you have a story in Marlton, New Jersey, so why don’t you tell us a story.

Finnegan 19:17
So you I talked about on another one just a grocer deal but we’re there’s a restaurant operator for those in the Philadelphia area you absolutely know Chickie’s & Pete’s there were they were penal probably get angry at me if I if he still is. I know he has been named the top sports bar in America. If you are for those of you out there and other parts of the country, they have their hands stadiums in Pittsburgh and Kansas City is crab fries are our world famous. And we have them at center and Marlton crossing In outside of Philadelphia, the intersection of route 70 and 73, right in an old right the front of the shopping center and old champs restaurant. So what was interesting about this, it was it was a fantastic restaurant space. And champs filed bankruptcy, I want to say this was the end of the 16th. And we were there were a bunch of companies that were looking at a bunch of tenants that wanted the space. And so I grew up going to Chickie’s & Pete’s. And Pete’s like it was the original one is in Northeast Philadelphia. My parents used to take me there. When I was in college, I was going there to watch Eagles games, and one of my best friend’s dad would get us a table after the Eagles game. So I was kind of pushing I was like, as best I could really lean in but but pushing. So it was it was getting to a point David was our president in the north region. We said look, they’re kind of stuck. They’re stuck at a at a certain red number. And this other deal is better. And I said, Look, why don’t we set up a meeting I’ll come in and meet with him. So I was flying back from knavery in Phoenix. It was the night before Thanksgiving. I go. I go to I land in Philadelphia, and I go around to meet pee pee trackies that is the owner Chickies in peds and David and the leasing Rep. Jason Fox at the time are meeting me there. And I walk in and he knew he knew that I had he kind of remembered the name but he looks at me and he’s looking at me like okay, this is the college guy who used to sit here and come and watch Eagles games. And it was really weird for me looking at like that booth, right? And and we kind of we sat down we started talking about it and because we had had a connection was really kind of transparent. We weren’t David and I were really transparent about where we were where we needed to be to get the to get the deal. And then I was coming down I’m an eagle season ticket holder. And I was coming down to the game and pizza wanting to come with me and Jim Taylor our CEO is a Washington football team fan. He he came down and so we go as I want to Jim to see the restaurant. It’s a huge facility and it’s a 10,000 square foot restaurant location that they have by the stadiums in Philadelphia is literally an old shopping bag it’s like a 20,000 square foot former grocery store that he built unbelievable fantastic spot. So we go we tour it we go to the game and he comes down so so the lease had gone out right and he comes down to the second quarter the game and he has two massive things a crab fries and cheese in them and fries are basically french fries with Old Bay seasoning and he puts them like Jim sitting here I’m sitting I’m sitting here and pizza at the end and like we’re just eating crap and pizza Brian I just got this lease and you know you guys are trying to stick this out parcel building next to me like what’s going on? I have like cheese and so it was it was just it was it was funny Jim like to tell that story so So fast forward we literally and you know this as a salesperson right you have end of month and the quarter and we’re going back and forth to get the least done and it was it was a lot of fun I give Pete a lot of credit to we literally got this signed on New Year’s Eve oh wow for the year and and wound up opening it Gosh a year so that would have been Yeah, we opened it right after the Super Bowl. And it was really cool for me I mean it’s think about so he had NBC News is there right there’s the crap fried mascot there he has a press conference with the with the mayor of the township gym and him about coming and look Pete He’s all over the I mean these are I mean he’s got crap for I stands at every stadium in Philadelphia it’s it’s a huge institution there and as we go to keep goes to the cut the ribbon kind of looks and kind of call I was sitting there right and um and for me as somebody who went to like to grow up going to this place your parents took you there when you’re a kid it’s a spot that you know you you went to in high school you go before games like you know crab fries, I mean this is the Eagles players do Press like do a show a sports radio show in his sports bar every Monday night. It’s just really cool. And it’s one of those things when it’s the great thing about our business, right to your point of how’s your how’s your store end up in that neighborhood, it’s, you know, people in the neighborhood love that a youth comes in, or whether it’s a grocery store or restaurant, and they’re excited about when they get that, well, some of the people that do the transactions to get really pumped out. There’s a there’s a sentimentality there too, and it was just, you know, seeing the opening that day, at the center. Is was fantastic. And, you know, Pete’s done a fantastic job during, over the past. He’s been a fantastic tenant and partner of ours. He’s done a tremendous job over over the past few months of navigating what’s going on, as you can imagine, from a sit down restaurant perspective, they have a massive tent, outside, outside their, their space. And, you know, he was telling me a couple of weeks ago, he was happy to be open in the Kansas City stadium when they had fans the first night. So it’s cool. And he’s a he’s a great partner. And we’re looking at a few other things with him. across the portfolio, but it was a fun one was a lot of fun to work on.

Ressa 26:17
That is awesome story. What nostalgia man, that is a lot of sentimental stuff there. That is fantastic. And, you know, you don’t always have the opportunity to, to work on something with something that has so much meaning to you. And, and so, kudos to everyone involved to make that happen. The so, does he have a lot of suburban locations? Yeah, he.

Finnegan 26:45
How many does he have now? He has a handful around. Yes, he does. So I mean, northeast Philly is kind of on a pad of a shopping center. He’s got some locations in Jersey, and he’s looking at Suburban. Yeah, he’s looking at some suburban spots and around Philadelphia, so awesome.

Ressa 27:05
The brand is amazing. He’s got an unbelievable brand. I mean, you know, with having everything in the stadiums down there is, is unbelievable for him. And you know, what a loyal following. And so

Finnegan 27:19
I’ll tell you a funny story. So at the Eagles won the Super Bowl a couple years ago, he went out there. And so what they do with the Super Bowl, you have a they literally have operators from Philadelphia, from Philadelphia and from New England. And what they do with the Super Bowl will typically have some type of it’s the only time I’ve ever went but they have some type of food from each team. And he was right next to Legal Seafoods from Boston, right. Like oyster sandwiches or something. And so I was texting him before the game and he’s like, You got to come to the standout. And to see somebody so proud. This is like a guy who grew up there’s nobody more did and then P he’s sitting there he’s seeing his brand, right and lines like around the whole turnstile to be able to get in and get crab fries there and see him for the guy who’s beating right Yeah, that’s amazing. The Vikings still kept them there like he’s signed up there. He’s got a he’s got a spot that stadium to wow. Yeah. So he had it. He had it last year. He had it the year after at least it’s a it’s fantastic.

Ressa 28:28
Wow, that is awesome. Tough on the Eagles this year. First place baby.

Finnegan 28:34
At this point, right.

Ressa 28:36
I now could applause it’s crazy. What’s going on Myles Sanders.

Finnegan 28:41
You know, I he was still a bank sometime you still heard? And it’s just been amazing. The whole league, right? If you think about I mean, you’re an athlete, you’re an athlete, right? You’re a wrestler. And you know these guys basically going from zero to 60 right with no preseason. Yeah. And it’s uh, you see the amount of injuries and that has to tie into it right? Yeah, offseason conditioning programs weren’t there for them. It’s It’s unfortunate, but it’s good to have it on just as a it’s been good, at least for me that it’s football has been on but it’s it’s challenging for those guys for sure.

Ressa 29:21
The So speaking of social distancing, and whatnot, what, what are you doing with the season tickets this year?

Finnegan 29:28
So I’m on I haven’t fully deferred them, but also haven’t gotten into the lottery. So the Eagles gave you the opportunity to just defer it and not lose your your seat license. And so far, so I have a I have a six week old now. And

Ressa 29:48
congrats. It’s your third child.

Finnegan 29:50
It’s a third third girl. Yeah, so we’re, we’re having fun. But my wife Katie, I haven’t I haven’t told her I want to be One of the 5000 fans at the game yet so Picard, I doubt that I will. But the reason I kept them is just hoping that things get better. And hopefully there’s a, you know, the ability maybe to go to a playoff game or two. So we’ll see. So right now, and if for some reason I don’t go to any of them, we’ll just take the deposit. Keep it for next year.

Ressa 30:18
So got it, but you’re gonna hold the tickets for next year? Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, sure. The so how you know, you’ve moved from man to man to zone defense. Two to three. How’s that transition?

Finnegan 30:32
It’s just unlucky to have a fantastic partner.

Ressa 30:35
Yeah. So too. Yeah, I

Finnegan 30:38
think we all married up. I know. I did.

Ressa 30:41
I did, for sure.

Finnegan 30:44
But no, it’s it’s been great. And my older two, my five, my three year old, we’ve just been fantastic weather. So we were fortunate. She’s sleeping well, and the things that we get that actually if you think about it, too, right, and I’d love to get your perspective on it. I mean, I’ve got to put my kids to bed more. This year, my more this year than I think I did with my five year old for tire life. And so even even though we’re working a lot during the day, it’s that connectivity and hope being home has been, that’s been kind of a blessing coming out, that’s for sure.

Ressa 31:19
Totally. I, you know, I missed a lot of putting my kids to bed for sure. And now, I don’t miss it. And it’s been. And there’s a couple of things that I’ve now gained responsibility for, that I didn’t have before just my wife has deployed a couple of things on me a couple of chores. i The one that so my daughter’s added diapers my son is not it’s a really simple one on my responsibilities. We need pampers in the house at all times. So I recently failed, I missed my delivery date. And they, they they weren’t here I was late. And I paid for the late penalty charges on that one inter at my household. But

Finnegan 32:06
other reasons, you just got to go to a physical store and do the pickup from byebye baby or something.

Ressa 32:10
Well, you know, it’s funny, you mentioned that. So when the pandemic first started, I, when I realized that all this pent up panic buying was happening. I I went on Amazon and I looked and they said pampers six weeks, I was like, how does that work? How does that work? What is it t shirts, like how does that work? And I went on Walmart site, and they gave and I could see four different stores in my area where there was pampers went. And sure enough on the shelf they said Pampers. So physical store.

Finnegan 32:46
That’s fantastic. That’s where we got our our new our cameras for the like our baby monitors. Ah, I think we did the same thing with with the bath here in Port Chester. Same exact thing.

Ressa 32:59
Got it. The Do you have the ring?

Finnegan 33:03
We do. We have rigged so we have the ring. And then we have we have the Google nest though at the in the house. So is saying

Ressa 33:10
I have nest and then I had brink. So I ever and you live in the suburbs. So it’s not like living in the city. But I’ve been I love looking at this ring thing. I’ve got three of them around my house. I’ve got some interesting stuff happening. So had this raccoon had this raccoon that I was like, you know this guy if you leave the garbage out this raccoons destroying it. Come to find out and my kids named him Ralph, the raccoon. And come to find out. We don’t have Ralph. We’ve got Ralph Rodney. Roger, I got a whole slew of raccoons that if I leave my garbage Yeah, well, because of the ring. So

Finnegan 33:56
that’s fantastic. I haven’t there’s much that on the outside. What’s been interesting is I think, my right before. Right, kind of early in the pet. We moved my five and my three year old into bunk beds together. And so we still have the the one of the nest cams in their room. And now they get it. So they’re like the green light up there. And I’m just waiting for this thing to get like rip down. Yeah. Are you looking at us? No. And it’s yeah, it’s interesting. That’s awesome, man.

Ressa 34:31
Well, that brings us to the last part of the show. I got three questions for you ready? Yes, sure. All right. Question one. What is your best piece of commercial real estate advice?

Finnegan 34:43
My best piece of commercial real estate advice that I got early in my career and it sounds it sounds simple, and I don’t always follow it. But rent is based off of sales, not market. And so Early, early in my career, I just remember, one of my mentors, he just said, you gotta understand what they can do understand what they’re doing out of the store, what they’re doing our stores going to what they’re doing. So it’s going to kind of give them the decision of whether they’re going to continue to invest there, whether they’re gonna leave the cost of them actually leaving. And so sometimes I think, you know, we get caught into and there’s gonna be plenty of relocation opportunities for people, but different uses can afford to pay different things. And just like any type of real estate, people can get emotionally attached to it people can. I heard something this week, our friend who petherbridge said to me, this is the only one of the only aspects of real estate where your neighbor matters. And if if you have a good neighbor, you can you have a good merchandising Mexican, and somebody can drive sales based certain amount of sales based off of their use. You can afford to charge more so I always kind of it always stuck with me and the not quoting rent, understanding sales, that whole everything kind of tied from that. So that was that was good for me to learn early

Ressa 36:14
question to what extinct retailer, do you wish you’d come back from the dead?

Finnegan 36:18
Oh, man. It just because it was such a I don’t know how they would exist today. But blockbuster was such a part of my life growing up. Oh, man. I mean, it’s just Friday nights, scouring if the movie that you wanted, like a new release was gonna be there or a game to take out? It was I just, you think back to two, all the names and places that you used to go to and you mentioned this to algebra beforehand. And you maybe there’d be some type of aspect of tying in with with digital today, or I don’t know how they would exist, they certainly wouldn’t exist in their form. But you know, that was just a part of part of life growing up, right? Totally. Just how that how that shift was kind of taking place and when I was thinking about it, and you know, that’s, that’s kind of came on who’s yours?

Ressa 37:26
So I use his install logic one, which is so you know, my I think, you know, it’s my mom left when I was two. So I did some projects with my dad when I was really young. And he would go to recall the home improvement store. And so that’s my nostalgic one from a from the blockbuster I think, I think one of the things the media gets confused right on blockbuster. I don’t like that blockbuster gets lumped in with retail because so blockbuster. Their product was displaced, not the function of physical retail. No one uses VHS and DVDs anymore. They only stream videos, the format of selling a good in a store didn’t get didn’t go away the actual product, they did more no different than when horse and buggies transferred to cars. And maybe one day will be like the Jetsons and cars will go away then those things will be sold. And Ford will sell whatever we’re flying around in and not cars but the fact of actual going somewhere to buy something that doesn’t change, but the product they were they had a data product that you know evaporated so I think that’s that’s a difference between Toys R Us right Toys R Us people still buying toys. You want to open up a toy store there’s a market to sell toys in a retail physical space. There’s just no market to sell VHS movies because no one has a VHS player anymore. Yeah,

Finnegan 39:02
that’s a good point.

Ressa 39:04
You know that’s why it’s

Finnegan 39:06
Toys R Us to for me as now. I mean, did you spend at Toys R Us was went bankrupt when my oldest was I think two or three years old. So I didn’t have the experience of many people running through and I guess you could still do the same thing at Walmart or Target at this point.

Ressa 39:30
Yeah, through the Toys R Us I didn’t my kids are three and two. So I didn’t have that either. But the for sure that would have been that would have been awesome. But But again, my point being Brian and Chris can open a toy store tomorrow and sell toys because there’s still a relevant product. It’s one of the reasons I’m actually I’ve been impressed with Barnes because hardcover books could have went away forget about whether you can buy the book online from walmart or amazon. The actual hardcover book almost went away and they navigated that plus the buying online. So I think that’s actually pretty impressive given the disruption that they had. So, anyway last question. Yeah, I know you’re a basketball guy. I’m looking at I’m at the nike.com I’m looking at the Air Jordan one mid s II. What is Nike selling those sport right now? They only have a size 14 I’m going to save 230-990-9109 97 Might be time to get a new fresh pair of Jordans but thank you for playing Yeah.

Finnegan 40:51
Are those the new ones those are like the

Ressa 40:53
oh I don’t know if they’re the new ones. I have no idea. I don’t know if they’re I don’t know if they’re the new ones but it I don’t think so. Because the new ones I think are in there usually like 250 to 300 and they fly off the shelf I obviously popular they only have a size 14 left. But

Finnegan 41:09
yeah, I guess I was going off of the fact they had a store you remember to the Nike app? Yeah. Okay. So I joined for the first time to try to buy the the Jordan US Open Wingfoot editions, golf shoes, and they were gone in six minutes. When they were you get that email from them ahead of time? Yes, they were gone. They were gone incredibly fast. So and I was and I was trying to use that. I didn’t know I was there. Everybody on the call. I didn’t know the product before you mentioned it, but I was using that price that was in that range. So

Ressa 41:52
cool. Well, listen. I I have to run. I know you do too. Yeah. But thanks for coming on, man.

Finnegan 42:02
You gotta buddy. I’ll talk to you soon man. Thanks

Ressa 42:03
for Simon. Thank you for listening to retail retold. If you want to share a story about a retail real estate deal that you were a part of on our show. Please reach out to us at retail retold at DLC mgmt.com This show highlights the stories behind the deals from all perspectives. So it doesn’t matter if you are a retailer, broker, entrepreneur, architect or an attorney. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to retail retold so you don’t miss out on next Thursday’s episode