LAS VEGAS Commercial real estate deals both big and small are born at the International Council of Shopping Centers annual Real Estate Convention.
They can also evolve here. Mendy Parish, a broker for CB Richard Ellis/Oklahoma, caught up with client Jim Tapp, president and CEO of Tapp Development Corp., on Tuesday and discussed an upcoming shopping center hes planning in Tulsa.
Ive got a hotel working on engineering plans for this site, he said, indicating an area on a map. Over here, Im looking at putting in a fountain that shoots water and make a big feature out of it.
Parish was intrigued by the suggestion. There are a lot of places something like that wouldnt work, but here it would, she said.
Their meeting was just one of dozens undertaken by Tulsa area people attending RECon, including Mayor Kathy Taylor, representatives of other city governments in the area, developers and real estate agents.
The four-day convention, estimated to have drawn 43,000 participants to the Las Vegas Convention Center, is designed to help match stores and restaurants with new locations. A large percentage of national chain locations in the Tulsa area came about through networking at ICSC events.
But the process can be a long one, said Rickey Hayes of Retail Attractions LLC, an economic development consulting company in Tulsa.
Sometimes youre looking at a three-to-four-year span between the first meeting and opening, with a tremendous amount of work in between, he said. Thats an eye-opening fact for city managers hoping for development.
Retailers are also particular about their locations, and they have long lists of site criteria that must be mostly, if not completely, met.
For example,Dallas-based Which Wich, with two locations in the Tulsa area, prefers areas with high concentrations of either college students or younger office or medical workers, high pedestrian and vehicle traffic, between 600 and 2,500 square feet of interior space with frontage of at least 20 feet, and a corner location with a sewer line at least 4 inches in diameter.
Location requirements are just one factor that influences where commercial spaces ultimately locate. Chris Reynolds, Texas area director for Which Wich, said finding suitable locations isnt the chief hurdle for the rapidly growing company.
The biggest challenge is finding franchisees to run them, he said.
Reynolds said Doug Hall opened Which Wich franchises in Tulsa because family is nearby. Still, some companies simply dont want to open a Tulsa location yet, Parish said.
Were a second-tier market, she said. There are people here who dont have Tulsa on their radar.
One is Brueggers, a bagel and sandwich shop. Company representative Jeff Kushner said that while Brueggers is opening sites around the nation, it hasnt looked at Oklahoma.
Right now were studying the market in Texas, which is nearby, he said. We look at areas that meet our criteria, which is larger cities. Were a white-collar food.
Convention participants from Tulsa are trying to get retailers like Brueggers to give the area a shot.
Parish said that various Oklahoma City parties have been aggressive at past ICSC events, with Tulsa having a more relaxed representation. Recently, shes noticed a much more active push from Tulsa area retailers and governments alike.
An aggressive approach may become critical over the next few years, said Christopher Seay of Seayco Group, a Bentonville, Arkansas based developer of Oklahoma projects such as the Super Target and Eastside Market along 71st Street near U.S. 169, and the Owasso shopping center that includes Lowes, Wal-Mart and Kohls on East 96th Street North.
He said the slowing national economy may hinder many new commercial developments.
Not only are these projects more diffcult to get off the ground in terms of advance tenant commitments, its harder to get financial backing, Seay said.
Still, Parish said shes had good luck during her Las Vegas trip.