Anyone who works in commercial real estate (CRE) knows the retail landscape is undergoing a digital revolution that is changing the way business is done.
Be it investors looking to expand their portfolios, or tenant representatives on the hunt for lucrative leasing opportunities, the new era of retail has professionals of all shapes and sizes rethinking strategies. From this, technology vendors and data providers have begun to transform their products too, including those who harness tenant information — a key component in unlocking holistic property insights for a competitive edge.
Now this intel goes beyond just tenant names to encompass rich, granular information like tenant classification, property manager contact information and company logistics. The depth of this information provides holistic, new insights for not just leasing brokers, but the entire CRE community.
Whether you’re an investor, a developer, a contractor or another service provider, access to this information can unlock doors to countless opportunities when navigating the world of retail, and beyond. Armed with a comprehensive understanding of a property’s current occupants, you’re empowered to perform better analysis and due-diligence—critical components to savvier deal-making down the line.
Strategic, streamlined discovery
Regardless of your role, access to the tenant structure of any commercial property via the right CRE platform enables more proficient prospecting. Investors, developers, brokers and service providers can all leverage tenant-related intel to direct their focus faster. CRE platforms, like Reonomy, allow you to effectively search the entire landscape of commercial properties and serve up associated tenant intel in just a few clicks. So, instead of manually connecting the dots through disparate sources and property records, the prospecting process is streamlined in one fell swoop.
For example, maybe you’re a local investor in Denver, Colorado looking to franchise a fast food restaurant, but aren’t entirely sure of which branches to explore or how the chain might perform in that area. With a platform like Reonomy, you can search either by a specific brand name or via the industry classification system using NAICS or SIC codes. So, if you were to utilize the NAICS code “Limited-Service Restaurants,” the platform would populate with similar properties, allowing you to evaluate potential competition and gauge likely return.
With access to modern data solutions, you can take back your time spent on manual sourcing strategies and easily uncover valuable information that helps narrow your focus and make smarter decisions. This expedites the preliminary discovery process tremendously to serve up the assets that matter to you, rather than wasting time and resources on noise.
A detailed perspective
Although precursory prospecting is greatly improved with tenant data, the depth of this information is what’s truly invaluable, and is what will help you uncover asset nuances that might otherwise go overlooked. For commercial real estate professionals, these details can greatly influence a decision to take action and reach out to owners or property managers. Access to intricate tenant information, like the date founded, the number of employees and type of location, grants you a holistic understanding of a property, inside and out.
Especially when combined with other asset-specific information, like the size of a building, the date of its last sale and the current owner on file, this knowledge allows you to separate the wheat from the chaff and better identify lucrative opportunities worth pursuing. Maybe you work for a mutual fund and are on the hunt for high-yield--you can leverage current occupant information to gauge the stability and health of assets. This, combined with current debt records and other rich property intel helps you pinpoint profitable investments and eliminate those that might not promise such high return.
Or, maybe you own a commercial cleaning company that specializes in servicing office spaces over 50,000 square feet. Knowing exactly which tenants are occupying the space as well as how large the actual property is can help you evaluate whether or not there is a deal is in your scope. Overall, it’s these elaborate, nuanced insights that allow you to formulate better-informed decisions.
A competitive edge
Finally, access to tenant structure and classifications provides a better platform in the final stages of outreach and negotiation. The tenant details and property insights you derive during discovery can impact how you approach decision-makers. Compared to the less-sophisticated competition who might not have this level of insight, let alone the correct contact information to get in touch with the right people, you’ll have a strategic leg-up in deal-making.
How? Access to these insights arms you to personalize your pitches and prove to owners you’ve done your homework. Using the same findings you unearthed earlier, you’re equipped to build stronger, more compelling business cases. While this varies from role to role, customizing your pitch based on your findings improves the chances of winning a deal. For example, if you’re a tenant representative looking to sign new space for your client, you can enhance your pitch just by including a few specific details. Rather than saying something along the lines of “I’m representing company X and see you have an open space, let’s have a conversation,” you can say something like “I’m representing company X and see you have 20,000 square feet of open space. I also see you have similar companies leasing other offices in the same building. Given their stability and net-lease agreements, this could be a great opportunity for you.”
Be it a new investment, vacant space for a client, or even a new business partnership, leveraging insightful tenant details and property intel unlocks the edge you need to secure a new opportunity before the competition does.
As retail continues its digital transformation, one thing is certain--tenant data can help elevate your business strategy along the way, no matter your commercial real estate background or role. A platform like Reonomy enables you to understand who is occupying the property and find their respective contact information, for any building. This provides a valuable means for direct contact with the decision makers at any property. In all, access to tenant data is a necessity for today’s retail market. Those who leverage it have everything they need to unlock new, advantageous opportunities.