LIDL in Frederick, MD with Connor Bevans & Adam Greenberg

Guest: Connor Bevans and Adam Greenberg
Topics: Lidl, leasing

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.

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Welcome to retail retold everyone today I’m excited we have Connor Bevins and Adam Greenberg on Connor has been with Lidl for six and a half years as a senior director of real estate. Adam Greenberg has been with DLC for nine and a half years. He’s our Vice President of leasing. We have recently completed at DLC our second deal with Lidl, both deals were done between Adam and Connor. And Lidl is an exciting retailer these days there a grocery chain that has been opening stores in the United States. And we are excited to be a partner with them. And I’m excited for you all to hear this story about Frederick, Maryland. Welcome to the show, guys.

Connor Bevans 1:43
Thanks for having me, Chris.

Adam Greenberg 1:44
Thank you.

Ressa 1:47
Adam, why don’t you tell us a little bit about you who you are for the listeners who don’t know.

Greenberg 1:53
Yeah, so I’m Adam Greenberg, Vice President of leasing at DLC management based in Bethesda, Maryland, one of our satellite offices. I’ve been with DLC for about nine and a half years started my career on the retailer side actually doing similar work to what Connor does. It worked for two national retailers handling their rollout in various states throughout the country, ultimately, became really interested in the landlord side of the business and decided to try making a pivot over to that join DLC back in 2011, and have never looked back started as a leasing rep and have generally worked my way up through the company to now lead a team and oversee a large portion of our portfolio.

Ressa 2:44
Awesome. Connor, Europe. Tell us a little bit about you.

Bevans 2:49
Yeah, so I’m Connor Bevins. I’m our senior director of real estate for for Lidl, my areas primarily cover right now is Virginia DC and Maryland, as I mentioned for six and a half years with the with the organization. So originally when I actually started with with Lidl as an Acquisition Manager, we weren’t called the law at the time, we were called MGP retail consulting and we’re very secretive. In our beginning stages. I was actually I’m now third longest tenured employee with the with the company. So I’ve seen a lot of growth with it. We wanted to be MGP retail just because we wanted to, to help build up our initial rollout and the company, my original primary area of focus was in Baltimore. So I was our Acquisition Manager for that area got several of those deals done and further grown with the organization. I helped build the original stores down in Central and Southern Virginia. So a lot of the stores you see in Richmond and the Hampton Roads area. So I had been been involved in and then since then grown to cover the whole the whole Mid Atlantic. So it’s been quite a quite a growth with the with the company. We are a company with very high ambitions and a lot of growth potential. We as you mentioned, we have we have over 100 stores now and actually tomorrow, we’re opening or tomorrow being Wednesday, we have about four stores opening including one of Meijer in Fairfax, Virginia so we have more, you know, more ambitious plans to continue continue moving forward. And it’s been you know, incredible experience to be to be part of that with Lidl. That’s unbelievable. It’s a great story, a great pivot. And it’s an unbelievable story. You guys are both based in the mid Atlantic. The two deals you guys have done have been in the mid Atlantic and you know, there’s no doubt the state of the world has been you know, perplexing and challenging for some and what’s it like down where you guys are and what’s going on in retail and real estate and you guys can take that and answer it any way you want

Greenberg 5:03
such a dynamic market with so many different drivers of the economy, when the rest of the country was in the Great Recession, a lot of money was being spent in DC. And that really prompted the market. And in general, we’re just really fortunate to have a healthy market that can withstand a lot of downturns that other markets that are tied to one specific industry cannot. Everyone thinks the US government. And obviously that is a huge driver of everything that goes on in DC. But there’s so much that surrounds that, and so many other sectors that have grown here that we’re just extremely fortunate to have a really strong market here. I work in other parts of the country as well, and often can see those distinctions. That being said, you know, currently COVID-19 is impacting everybody, we’re certainly seeing a lot of challenges associated with that. But even in that context, I think that we are seeing DC continuing to show its resiliency through the pandemic.

Bevans 6:12
Yeah, I generally echo a lot of what what Adams saying, I think, from from grocery side, what one of the most interesting things about being in this area is not a competition that’s in the market, Lidl itself, we, we see a lot of new competitors, and not just ourselves who are pulling into or moving to the market, because they see a lot of these growth trends and the strong underlying fundamentals of the DC market, which makes it a really unique place to work in, as opposed to a lot of other parts of the parts of the country. But in general, we also see is, you know, not only competition for the actual customers competition for spaces as well, and I’m sure Adam sees it on the on the leasing side is that when you have spaces rarely come available, there’s usually a lot of competition for a lot of different users who want to be able to expand into those markets. So from from that side, the it is a there’s a lot of competition for for us as trying to try to expand. So I think that from that standpoint, it’s a it’s an interesting market to work out. And I have, as I mentioned earlier worked in some of the other markets in Virginia where you don’t see that same type of competition. So that’s why I enjoy the the challenge of working in this working in this market. I’m pivoting into Yeah, as well as the COVID side, what I found the most interesting is the the switch from working from home and working through the construction side of the of the business and working with the counties on how to ensure from our side that our sites are safe for our for our construction workers, and, but also how they’re a lot of places are willing to go to virtual inspections going to that, being able to make sure that your projects can continue to move forward on the timeframes that you want. And they are a lot more

to do can go first of all I gotta tell you go first.

Greenberg 4:50
So I would say we’re extremely fortunate to be in the area where we are Washington DC Baltimore, the Mid Atlantic, in is such a dynamic,

Bevans 7:50
a surprise at how willing they were to work with us to be able to make sure that we’re able to get our stores open for the customers, because obviously, during this time period, it’s difficult for a lot of people, some people have lost their jobs, but they’ve been able to find a way to work with us and not against us to be able to make sure that we have been able to get our stores open. So I think really appreciate working in a market like this, that they have used these opportunities to work within the 21st century frameworks, which in a lot of places, I’m sure other retailers have said that their sites have been shut down, and they had been slowed down. So I think that also from from our side is one of the more unique things that that you see.

Ressa 8:29
Yeah, that’s a great point. I’ve been on virtual meetings with, you know, for permits, and for, you know, entitlements and things like that, and approvals and zoning. And, you know, there was this concern that those were all going to get slowed down. And, you know, to some extent they have, but the virtual nature of it has been moving things along unexpectedly, which has been, you know, really great to see municipalities pivot to that, so that that’s a good call out. You know, the last thing, you know, and you’re both in it, what’s going on in the grocery sector right now, what’s what’s happening? There’s, you know, headline news, in general, I would say has been very positive on the grocery sector. It’s been, you know, increasing sales and increasing innovation. Those have been like, the two biggest headlines that I’ve seen, and what are you both seeing on that front? You know, and I’ll start with you,

Adam. Yeah, you know, I

Greenberg 9:28
think that certainly, as Connor mentioned, in the DC market, you have there a lot of players in the market, a lot of the legacy players are still very strong, but there’s been as long as I’ve lived here, and I’ve lived in DC for over 10 years, there’s been just a constant stream of new entrants to the market and in new growth, and I think that’s really forced the retailers to be able to compete in such a competitive space, to innovate And, you know, as a consumer, obviously, we’re seeing it on a daily basis with online ordering, buy online pick up in store curbside pickup, I think, obviously, that’s been further accelerated by the current pandemic. And people have sort of relied on that. I think it’s only going to accelerate the innovation that groups like Connors are going to come up with. And I’m really excited to see how this their industry continues to evolve.

Ressa 10:34
Yeah, I definitely.

Bevans 10:36
echo a lot of your your statements there. I think from from our side, how I see it was specifically within the framework of Lidl, where I think that we have provided a lot of pressure in the in the market is on is on pricing. And I think that as you’re saying, grocery sales are are going up, especially during during this time period. But at the same time, what we what we provide in the in the market as a lot of pressure on the pricing, we just recently actually had a study come out about SDM by a UNC business school about the pricing pressure that we put on our competitors when we enter a market, they specifically looked at us for on Long Island. But I think that it echoes in general is that the more competition is actually suit is really benefiting the customer. Because you have people come in with quality products like we do. And that’s what our goal is to have the highest quality products, the best prices. So that that is also an area where you continue to see the benefits passed along to the to the consumers. From the innovation side, I definitely see you see more and more you see the push on and think you guys have talked about it on several podcasts that the push for delivery, the push for all the work on that on that side and bringing that industry and it’s a it’s something that pretty much every every grocer is is looking at. So I think those are kind of the major things that I see both from an internal and also an external

Ressa 11:47
perspective. And I think just to add on

Greenberg 11:49
the carnage point on pricing pressure that they bring, I think, you know, it’s an important thing to us that they’ll see that to really understand our tenants businesses. And I think a lot of cases, you know, whether a tenant report sales, or you just have anecdotal feedback that yeah, this is a really busy store there, they must be doing a lot of volume. That doesn’t always translate into profit, profitability. So once I think with grocers, you know, really with all retailers, but but grocers, especially having those conversations, you know, we’re partners with our tenants with it, we want to make sure that they’re thriving, and we can’t just assume because their store is busy, they’re thriving. It’s really important for us as retail shopping center owners to understand the landscape and, and understand those types of things. Because high volume doesn’t always translate into high profitability, especially in the grocery business. Yeah, definitely.

Ressa 12:48
Low Margin. One of the things though, that I that’s important, and in a lot of our centers we try to create is this value proposition for the consumer, and a lot of our tenant mixes do do that. And, you know, excited to partner with someone like Lidl, who is providing extreme value to the consumer. That that was some great insights guys on the state of the market. I want to pivot to the story because we recently signed a deal in Frederick, Maryland. And there’s under construction now and wanted to kind of talk to you guys about that. And tell us the story behind that. And, you know, Connor, I’ll start with you on kind of how you see how that kind of started and evolved?

Bevans 13:35
Yeah, absolutely. So it’s, it’s one of the deals that that comes through working with relationships, as I mentioned, the beginning of the podcast with our deal over at Oxon Hill. That was kind of the genesis of things I think starting so to give you background from Lidl in general we we’ve targeted Frederick as a market for for a while, and we actually had owned a piece of property there and decided we didn’t want to we didn’t want to build it at that time. And there’s very few sites that I really loved in the in the area, but we had we’d actually looked at the site years years ago when they had a previous ownership on there, and I thought, you know, this would be a great, great spot and it came up when we’re at ICSC last year that you guys pulled me aside and said hey Connor, we’re looking at his site and site in Frederick and all of his thinking as well this could be a very quick conversation because there’s only a couple that I would that I would consider considered doing. And then you guys pulled up the Kmart location and thought immediately this is the this is the site it is a site that’s a really strong that has given us a really strong chance and really strong presence in the in the market. And then from there we had you know really just start we started moving actually quite quite quickly. That’s what I appreciate with working on stuff on on site with you guys is that you’re very quick and process oriented and how to get to how we need to outfit a center and get get everything together. So yeah, it’ll put it all started biscuit ICSC last

Ressa 14:54
last year. Awesome. Go for it, Adam. Yeah, no,

Greenberg 14:59
it’s just Say, Yeah, I mean, kind of really summed it up. Well, I think, you know, the the Oxon Hill deal kind of gave us the opportunity to get to know each other work together. And until we worked really well together through that, which was a complex transaction. But I think, you know, we really got to understand each other’s priorities. And, you know, we’re very efficient in figuring that one out. And so I, you know, we were meeting to talk about that ICSC in Vegas last year, at the time, we had just got under contract to purchase the shopping center in Frederick. So it was interesting at the time, Kmart was still opening operating, they still had term on their lease, they’d not indicated that they were going to close yet. And, you know, we were under contract. So we took advantage of the opportunity, we’re under contract, sitting down with Connor, and brought up the site. And as you mentioned, you know, clearly he was familiar with the site had interest in it. And, you know, we wanted to try to figure out a way to make something happen with them. We we certainly were excited about the idea of having a grocer in the Senate, which the senator didn’t previously have one, we thought that that would bring a you know, needed service to the community would generate daily traffic into the center, and really kind of make Frederick County square part of the local residents daily routines. And additionally, we’re really excited about Lidl and the way that they do the grocery business, the excitement that they bring new to market, and we thought it could be a great fit for us there.

Ressa 16:38
So you guys both mentioned something that I find interesting, which is, if I unpack it, that the first deal really helped the relationship and helped get to the second deal. And you hear that a lot in business where, you know, once you get one done, it’s really that creates the framework for the rest. And I guess the question is, do you think that the Fredrik deal would have been a lot more challenging? Had you guys not worked on and built a relationship on the first deal in

Oxon Hill? I do. Yeah, I

Bevans 17:15
think I think it is, it is helpful, because I think it also helps if you understand what the 10 bras on our side what we want, I think it helps them out and be able to help create what the rest of your center will look like you understand from having discussions about code, co tenancy issues out of out of the office info location, what do we want? What tenants work for us? What tenants don’t work for us? What tenants Do you guys want, what versus what we want? I think that helps clean up a lot of those issues. Were there ends up a lot of times during the first deal, having a lot of time spent having those discussions about some minutia that I’m sure any layperson would say why in the world, are you guys talking about all these things, but it’s important to understand okay, this is where Connor is coming from. This is how these potential co tenant would positively or negatively impact impact our business. So I think it really does help get get the tenor of what’s the priorities on the on the legal side, but then also, what sizing do we want even having that side so you know, Adam knows okay and oxen Hill, we are looking at a bigger space there and we’re subdividing it out. Okay, even before having conversation with me, he knows, this is what Lita wants I know if I can say Connor and give me 20,000.9 1000 square feet at this Frederick location, I can already start be thinking two steps ahead, as well for the my other tenants to be able to help quickly move through that side of it, as well with your other existing tenant rosters.

Ressa 18:39
Yeah,

Greenberg 18:40
I completely agree. I think it’s it’s twofold. I think one is on the relationship side. And just personally, you know, getting to know Connor and understand how he works and understand that it’s okay, that I can text him at 1030 at night, and he’s gonna probably text me right back. And, you know, building that rapport absolutely helps tremendously. And, you know, as you mentioned, just on the specific deal side understanding who Lidl is what their priorities are that type of space that they’re looking for the type of demographic they’re looking for it just having that foundation, I think, certainly put us a step ahead in the process on Frederick and made that go, you know, quickly and as smoothly as possible, which I think is also an interesting part of the

Ressa 19:31
story. Yeah, and,

you know, going back a little bit and unpacking, you know, Connor, you you had mentioned that it stemmed from an in person meeting, you know, in the, the hopefully one day we’re gonna get back to having more in person meetings today. We’re not doing a ton of those. Have Have either of you seen challenges because of the lack of in person meetings is there or is the virtual nature of it solved it? Or at one point do we need to get back to in person meetings?

Bevans 20:07
Yeah, I mean, I think the virtual nature of stuff, it solves several issues, it’s still you still don’t have that same in person connection. And I think that there are times with dealing with various people that some people get a little bit more hot on the virtual as opposed to when you’re actually having a conversation, in person. But I am, I was very skeptical initially of how well things could could work on but I’ve definitely become a convert to show that their work can be done, you can still have these still have these meetings. But there still is something that cannot be replaced is actually getting out to the site, being able to be still being able to tour the spaces. So being able to get into the real nitty gritty of the of the site is still necessary. And that and that is and actually having that those follow up in person still needs to still needs to happen. But it needs to be done safely. But overall, I still think that a lot of the work can be done, can be done virtually.

Ressa 21:02
Yeah. It’s hard to quantify feel. Right? Yeah. Right. Because you mentioned one of the things that hit home is like Adam pulled you aside and said, Hey, I might have an opportunity for you. Right? That’s it’s hard to replicate that

Bevans 21:14
virtually be hard to do virtually, it’d

Greenberg 21:15
be a phone call, it would be, you know, it’s just the situation may not have presented itself to be able to do that in an informal way. If if we weren’t in the same place, but you know, I agree with John, I’ve actually been really positively surprised with how well we’ve been able to keep business moving forward virtually, in places where we would have otherwise, you know, wanted to have certain needs in person, I agree with them at 100%. As soon as it’s safe, can’t wait until we can get back to meeting people in person. I really think that it’s extremely important and building relationships and, you know, in the long term scheme of things, continuing a productive business relationship, but as a short term Band Aid, hopefully, I think we’ve all done a pretty good job of figuring out how to pivot and get done what we need to get done virtually.

Ressa 22:19
Awesome. You all

identified Frederick, what you know, you said you identified it a while ago, you know, what did you like about Frederick?

Bevans 22:28
Yeah, I think the incomes are very much within the profile of what we’re what we’re looking for. So generally, when we are looking for looking for spaces and looking for markets, for us to initially expand into, we see a three mile population of more than 50 60,000 people that generally starts getting in the range and what we’re looking for as a market. I like the dent, I like the fact that it’s it’s a year round population. So we don’t have to worry about any sort of fluctuations there. Pharmacy from seasonal, seasonal side. And also what I like is generally the there’s still growth going on, we like having new people coming into the market, because ultimately, we are a late comer to many, many markets. So having the growth, having growth picture, having new people coming into the areas to want to be able to give us a give us a try also allows us to have additional future future customers on as well as we’re getting more of that, or getting more of the market share as we as we grow.

Ressa 23:23
And then you mentioned there were only a couple of sites in in Frederick, you knew what did you know about this site before Adam presented it to you?

Bevans 23:32
I did yeah, I do. I knew from the previous the previous ownership, but the discussion or always been when we had it was that you know, Kmart wasn’t looking to downsize, they’re going to be staying in there for as long as they are for as long as they could. So they said no, check back at some other check back at some other date. But some other date happened. But just with a with it with a different with a different ownership. So yeah, but we it was definitely one of those ones where we were looking at it we we have our real estate managers who are going out to the market sequentially going through the market saying hey, these are the these are the eight targets, these are the ones we need to follow, follow up on and continue to follow up on over over the course of several years, as I’m sure you guys do on on your side, when you’re looking for those opportunities, we get very meticulous approach to trying to roll out within the within the market and are willing to wait for times to make sure that things are we have the site set up the way we want the one that’s going to be convenient to the customers, the ones that is going to be operationally convenient for our staff to be able to work out uh, so we’re willing to willing to wait for those opportunities, which is why it took a while for us, you know, six, six years in and one of the initial markets that we had had been looking to actually find the store that we want to be our forever home.

Ressa 24:45
Yeah. Adam and you mentioned

some of it earlier, you know, when you were when we were buying this and you were looking at merchandising it, you know, why did Lidl come to mind for you?

I think it’s

Greenberg 25:00
In order to, I guess, take a step back a little bit and explain to the listeners what about the market where in Frederick they are, they are under construction. So the shopping center is on West Patrick street and on a stretch that is called the Golden Mile. The this trade area was long ago anchored by a large regional mall, where DLC actually had some history, we had worked a few years back to try to redevelop that mall that ultimately didn’t come to fruition. And this was sort of our second opportunity to invest in this part of Frederick, this is a part of Frederick that we’ve always believed had a lot of really strong fundamentals, but is limited in space availability. And, frankly, there’s hasn’t been any new, new attractive product that has come on the market in I think over 20 years. So the center that we purchased Frederick County square, we believe is the best position in this trade areas right off the interchange to get onto West Patrick Street. Great visibility, great access, great accessibility from a lot of local and regional

Ressa 26:24
customers. So

Greenberg 26:27
to Ed’s to you know, why Lidl again, I think that that having a grocer in the center was always a priority to us. We just think having a someone that’s going to drive daily traffic into the center, and they had mentioned before, you know, make this a part of their daily routine was certainly something that was a priority. And given the fact that there just hadn’t been any new exciting development or redevelopment in this corridor for quite some time. You know, what better way than a new to market grocer that we could introduce to the community of Frederick and, you know, really inject some newness and excitement into this area. As part of it, we’re we are in the process of redoing the facade, you know, totally upgrading the look of the shopping center. And I think the combination of the aesthetics, and an exciting new user is really going to live and not only just our center, but really bring a new energy to the Golden Mile and the west side of Frederick.

Ressa 27:28
Awesome.

All right, guys. Well, it’s been lollipops and rainbows, the for the whole time we’ve been talking about this. Let’s talk about it. And maybe we’ll get different views. What do you guys did you guys were working through this? What was the biggest challenge that you guys faced?

had anything go ahead, personally,

Bevans 27:48
the dark side?

Greenberg 27:53
You know, I think the biggest challenge is the fact that when we started talking, we didn’t actually have a space to lease them. It was a really sort of unique scenario where we had conviction that we were going to eventually have control the space back, but we really didn’t know when. And we we also recognize that little one would be the market and, and we really wanted to have them. And it was a tricky balance to, you know, be able to provide them with commitments of you know, when and how we’re going to be able to deliver the space, you know, without entirely knowing it at first, ultimately, I think it all sort of came together a lot faster. Even then, we had anticipated or we had told them that we thought it was going to come together. But that was certainly the most challenging part of this deal was sort of balancing those two sides having a tenant that was that we wanted that was you know, ready, willing and able to do something. And having a space that we knew that we were going to get back over a near term time horizon. But it was not clear at first when that was going to be so under

Ressa 29:05
promise and over deliver. That’s a good, that’s a good one there.

And how did you

resolve that with the uncertainty? How did you guys resolve that even though there was uncertainty? Because I think it’s important for the listeners given a clear there’s a lot of uncertainty in the marketplace right now. And in not just real estate or retail and everything. So how do you resolve that uncertainty there?

Greenberg 29:31
Think we, I think being upfront at first as to where everything currently stood, but also sharing our view on on sort of how we thought it was going to play out? I think was was really important, but I think to some extent it was it. You know, we both had to get comfortable with operating under some level of chaos, if you will. We had to have sort of Some shared fate that okay, we’re gonna work this out, we may not know exactly how it’s going to work just yet, but let’s work on it. I think there are some groups that we work with that wouldn’t be able to have that sort of creativity and vision. But I think leetle got it, Connor got it. Kevin countersued last worked on this, he got it, and we just kind of put our heads down and kept moving forward. And, and the rest ended up working itself out.

Ressa 30:28
So if I unpack that the, you know, in dealing with uncertainty, and in this transaction, it’s transparency, being open and honest, it’s trust, being able to, you know, trust each other, that you guys are working to the same goal, and then just having a strategy and a plan, even though, you know, there’s some uncertainty around the plan that you’re both working toward? I don’t know, if you have a different challenge that I know the deal. I think that’s probably one of the bigger challenges, but

Bevans 30:58
it is no getting, as always, when we’re trying to go through our internal processes to get to get a site approved, the first question is always or generally, Connor, when is the store gonna open color? How much is the store going to gonna cost? We felt good about the one side of how much how much did it cost. But the opening one was definitely the, the difficulty with getting with getting a site with getting a site approved on these for us, you know, we’re building out a pipeline of stores over the next, you know, the next many, many years and be able to try to slot it in the correct spot, it’s difficult. But at the same time, what I appreciate it from the from from your side, and what I would encourage many landlords to do is be honest about the issues with the site, it’s way easier. And I think from from our at least internally from from our side, we’re willing to work with work with landlords, if we’re given given all the information and we can, you can work within a lease contract to say, hey, here’s your outside delivery take. And if it doesn’t, if it doesn’t happen, then it doesn’t happen. You know, and we’re, you know, we’re not offended on that, because we, we expect our partners to work as hard as they work as hard as they can for for an opportunity to get us there. Because I think we provide as we provide a lot of value to the landlord, but there are certain times where things don’t, don’t work out, but you should, you should work hard on it. And then internally, we can still make those same decisions with how we try to sequence the store how much money we actually want to spend, prior to getting 100% certainty that the that the tenant, the tenant is going to leave or not. But I think that having it be an open line of communication is important. Because you know, it as with anyone you know, you don’t want to just look dumb, frankly, and you know, and having those and being able to have those honest discussions, they look 100 This might work this might not work, but I feel very strong out here where our conversations are as much as you can handle designer we also understand that planning times NDAs are signed when you’re working with retailers you can’t give the full the full picture. But I think that type of communication to me is is super important because it does help moving on to the next deal so that you’ve seen these guys, you know, I’ve seen DLC deliver on their on their promises. So I think very much helps to get over the hurdles for future future transactions as well. The other part for us too, is also just getting a layout that still works works for us and the space itself is you know, Kmart boxes are interesting, you know, not none of their not all the not all the same, they’re loading situations tend to be different because we’ve looked at several different these kinds of second second generation spaces. And making sure and trying to find a way to make sure that we have our own dedicated loading area and be able to make sure that from an efficiency standpoint within for our store operations team that they can continue working on that so that’s also something we have to work with Adam because it’s a little bit abnormal, we have a bit of a more of a corridor than we would expect in a traditional and our traditional Lisa in line these spaces but that’s where it gets to working through hey you know it doesn’t make sense to create a new loading dock for us timing costs cetera there’s no reason to no reason to do that. But we need to we need to create this extension we need to have our own protected areas so that we don’t run the risk of having other future employees from another another place coming into our stores and those are the other kinds of work fine fine details that get get hammered out that can help everyone else afterwards to have the defined rules of okay this is where things need to need to go I think having those conversations earlier were the other real hurdles to get through otherwise Yeah, it was a very straightforward from from that which we which we like

Greenberg 34:26
I actually if I can do you know, another college challenge but actually was one of my favorite parts of this story on how this deal came together. And maybe Connor can add some a little bit of what happened on his side with this because I don’t know that part of it. But at some point I assume some meeting happened on legal side and it was recognized that okay, this deals close enough. We think we can bring it into this fiscal year. And I got a call I want to say it was on a Monday that you know, a this our fiscal year ends on Friday but Get this least done by Friday. And, you know, while we are all about moving quickly, you know, this was at least that was pretty far along, but certainly not at a point where anyone would have said that morning yet we should be done by this Friday, but we said, okay, it’s important to you. And at first, I brought it back internally spoke with with Eucharists spoke with our legal team spoke with our construction team spoke with our asset manager, asset management team and the industry action was okay, yeah. But, you know, at first it was some skepticism. But we said, Yeah, let’s, let’s try. And it was incredible how, between Monday and Friday, mind you, I was away at a conference Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of that week, and ICSC conference in Nashville. And despite that, we did it we within a five day period of time, we’re able to rally everyone internally on both sides. And I mean, it was it was really incredible. It was if you understood where we were on Monday, when we had that initial conversation, and how how much we needed to still get done to be able to really get it across the finish line. It was incredible. And I you know, I mean, within our team, I know within a leaderless group, there were many, many people who had this sort of drop everything that they were working on, and, and, you know, stay up late into the night in some cases to pull it together. But it was it was pretty neat.

Bevans 36:30
Yeah, definitely. It’s a team. You know, it is it is a team team effort. For sure, we’d love for us we’d like getting, we like getting deals done, I think is a situation we’re in a position to finish finish off and have a really strong year for us from from an expansion side. And this was a deal that we felt would be really great. Add to the Add to be able to internal reports is another one that we got some really, really strong sites. So it was a definitely a big push on on that side. We have we do have a fiscal year end date that we try to get to try to get the deals done. And as long as they’re intelligent ones for us. And this is one I was definitely willing, we’re willing to fight to get there on it was it Yeah, it is. It was absolutely a big group, big group effort. And you need buy in from buyers from both from both sides. And that is not always not always easy, but always, always appreciated on on our side.

Ressa 37:24
Awesome. Well,

that’s that’s a great end to that story, guys. Thank you for sharing. And excited to do more with you guys at Lido Connor. And, you know, thanks for coming on and sharing that. Both you guys. I know Adam, this is your first time on as well. So thanks for coming on. The last part, the last part of our show, guys is retail wisdom. So I have three questions for both you guys. We’ll go with Adam then Connor on each one. So Adam, what is your best piece of commercial real estate advice for everyone out there?

Greenberg 38:01
You know, I’ll tailor this to the, you know, shopping center leasing people out there. And I think the biggest advice I would say is ask a lot of questions, listen, and then pivot. I think there is a, you know, an instinct sometimes especially with newer leasing people to just, you know, they get in front of a prospect and they just want to sell, sell, sell. And you know, one of the things I’ve learned in my career is every single prospect is different and it’s so important to understand the businesses, the priorities, the background behind what is going on within any given organization. So I would say the advice would be ask a lot of questions, listen, and

Ressa 38:48
react. Great advice,

Bevans 38:52
Connor. Yeah, I’ll take it from the from the internal retailer side. I think you need to learn you need to be willing to learn I and there are so many people out there who are experts in their own specific thing whether our real estate managers is expert at getting getting deals center construction managers are excellent at getting construction done to people I think are most successful are the ones who are willing to bridge that bridge the gap between there it does not mean you’re your real estate manager needs to be an expert on construction. But I want and I always push our guys to be able to learn more about those roles because then you can start helping them and helping each other to be able to bridge the to be able to bridge the gaps and ultimately save money for us. So I joke around it’s almost like we have an internal coordination fee for all the time wasted between when the two groups aren’t aren’t talking to each other or when the construction manager is not talking to the architect. If you’re willing to understand going back to more Adams coming in willing to understand what the your other party is looking for. You can save yourself so much time and so much money and so many headaches. Bye bye willing to get a bit outside of your comfort zone. Definitely master your role, but also understand how do you how do you live within that retail ecosystem? And you can make yourself a significant asset to your organization. Wow, that’s

Ressa 40:04
great advice to men. Thank you for sharing that.

Question to Adam.

What extinct retailer Do

you wish you’d come back from the dead? Ah,

Greenberg 40:19
I would say galleons sporting goods. Not sure if either of you are familiar with them. But a chain actually, they had, I think one location here in Maryland. It was one of my first jobs I ever had. When I was in high school. I used to sell skis there, but it was eventually purchased by Dick’s Sporting Goods, but galleons was it was just a pretty magical store as a kid and a teenager, you’d go and climb the climbing wall. It was, I could spend all day in that store. It

Ressa 40:52
was it was pretty new. Wow.

I know the store. No one’s ever said it. So I appreciate the insights, galleons. Connor.

Bevans 41:01
Unfortunately, my answer is not going to be that unique. Now that we’ve gone the sporting sporting goods route. Mine was going to be Sports Authority. I think I’m someone who was never particularly particularly good at sports. But I always thought if you look, if you look good, you play good. So I think that the amount of time that I spent in there looking at the newest, newest baseball glove, newest bat, any of the any of the sporting stuff that to me was always a treasure trove in there. And I absolutely love that. Everyone knows the Sports Authority store the story, but to me, it was always a great, great spot to go to when I was younger.

Ressa 41:35
Do you know the Deion Sanders quote? Yes.

And for those who don’t, you look good.

You feel good. You feel good? Play good. Play good. They pay good. So I always found that humorous. All right, last question. We’ll start with you Adam. I you know I got some new grass coming in. And you know, spent some time on Home Depot. And I am looking at the ion electric cordless. String Trimmer and edger made by RYOBI 18 volt. What does that retail for on Home Depot’s website. String a

Greenberg 42:31
trimmer edger RYOBI cord cordless electric chargeable

Ressa 42:36
you got it didn’t go to 99 Wow. It is 6997 But thank you for playing.

Greenberg 42:44
Oh wow. Wait. I don’t do enough shopping.

Ressa 42:49
And Connor. I am on Home Depot’s website and I am looking at the John Deere. E 120 42 inch 20 horsepower twin gas hydrostatic lawn tractor. What is this lawnmower

Bevans 43:04
retailed for never never purchased them that one I will go with Let’s go 700 Dogs

Ressa 43:11
1899.

But thank you for playing.

Well, guys,

this has been great. I’m conscious of time. Thanks so much. Great story. And this was really cool, though. Thanks, guys.

Bevans 43:26
Thanks for having me on. Have fun.

Ressa 43:29
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