CRE Collaborative for Shopping Centers and Strip Malls
By Howard Oliver, MBA
There is positive news about the retail sector. Innovative pop-up stores and retail tech is driving innovation.
Certain retailers are performing well as others decline. Target and Kohl’s are experiencing strong sales, standing out as retail successes because of their product differentiation, customer engagement, and innovation. They provide "retail theatre" in a consistently great customer shopping experience.
Summarily, better-managed community shopping centers and strip malls are maintaining their viability by offering great customer engagement — locally owned retailers who know their customers.
Also, people are discovering online shopping can be empty and dull, so they're turning back to local shopping centers and strip malls that offer convenient parking and easy store access. These properties are becoming community hubs where people gather, work, shop, dine, exercise, enjoy entertainment and recreation, receive health care, use daycare, worship and more. Shopping centers and strip malls are also attracting successful experience-based businesses that won’t thrive online: restaurants, family entertainment, indoor trampoline parks, movie theaters, health services, gyms, clothing & home decorating boutiques.
CRE investors are responding accordingly. Malls that feature this mix of retail, services, and experiences are seen as the best bets for retail real estate investment this year. Reinvestment dollars are flowing to properties for redevelopment with residential, office and entertainment components.
These changes represent a great opportunity for CRE professionals owner/operators to communicate the value of their properties to prospective tenants and buyers in new innovative ways with CRE Tech.
New tools are now available from CRE focused technology companies that: collect and aggregate property, and consumer trend data; link investors, retailers, shopping center brokers, and owner-operators; and market properties in vivid and compelling ways far exceeding current property brochures and online templated content.
New communities of early adopters of these methodologies are disrupting traditional CRE sales and marketing networks. As with all innovations, early adopters can experience hockey stick growth by jumping in and participating in these new and growing network hubs.
CRE Collaborative represents one of these network hubs. Participants can position themselves as thought leaders and first movers in an emerging CRE environment. It's there to help you rapidly access market intelligence; expand your network and react nimbly to opportunities, and important - to tell your properties story more richly and therefore more competitively across multiple platforms
CRE Collaborative Inc. is the industry’s first platform that aggregates real estate data & technology in one place; an integrated database with an easy to use portal that enables quick access to relevant real estate industry data, technologies, and professional networks.
CRE Collaborators gain access to the industry’s best tools and data through a marketplace of data partners, are introduced to new partner technology data sets and are enabled to close more deals and hone their competitive market advantage.
CRE Partners and Technology Providers can participate in CRE Collaborative's Marketplace that offers best-in-class data, technologies, and real estate services.
It is up to you to jump right in and participate.
Howard Oliver is the Managing Partner of What If What Next™. What If What Next™ is a PR and content marketing agency specializing in revenue-producing marketing solutions for strip malls, shopping centers, and retail brands. What If What Next™ can help your strip malls and shopping centers rock! Grow your strip mall and shopping center investments with our hard-working VIDEOS, VISUALS, and VERBIAGE that boosts attention, traffic, and sales. Our team consists of a campaign-hardened group of strategic marketing communicators, researchers, writers, editors, videographers, graphic artists, social media community managers, PR experts, and project managers. With CRE Collaborative and its CRE Tech providers, we provide our clients with the best technology support possible.
Howard Oliver
Managing Partner
What If What Next
416-568-5254