Richcreek Plaza and Spectrum Shopping Center are both well-located retail centers on Burnet Road and have maintained a low occupancy for a number of years. However, each center was encumbered with one or two spaces that remained vacant due to site, shape, and other reasons.
Because the owners were determined to not settle for tenants that would maintain the high-quality tenant mix in these centers, ECR was tasked to produce a strategy to find and draw good tenants for these remaining spaces.
Strategy
ECR combined its listing team efforts with its expert marketing team to create new, high-quality marketing materials.
Included in the marketing campaign was vibrant “for lease” signage as well as strategic email, listing service, and Craigslist campaigns.
Both Richcreek Plaza and Spectrum shopping Centers were marketed through all possible outlets.
Additionally, the property’s leasing brokers personally called retail leasing professionals in Austin to drive awareness and followed by walking and researching retail centers and tenants in the area.
Richcreek Plaza: To increase the opportunity for acquiring better tenants, ECR and the ownership formed a plan to re-size spaces and rearrange monument signage opportunities. Furthermore, through strategic planning, the ownership restriped Richcreek Plaza’s parking to better suit the City of Austin’s needs for increased parking, and ECR sought out higher-end retail and restaurant use for the spaces.
Spectrum Shopping Center: In the Spectrum Shopping Center ECR focused on finding the “right fit” as the landlord was determined to only improve the tenant mix, and that stood above the need to lease space.
Results
In the first week of 2014, ECR brought both Richcreek Plaza and Spectrum Shopping Center to 100% occupancy, this was completed while cultivating the tenant mix.
Included at Richcreek Plaza is the addition of a chic chocolate factory and an upscale bakery/coffeehouse. In the Spectrum Shopping Center ECR attracted an up-and-coming boot company to fill the final remaining space.
In the spring and summer of 2014, Richcreek Plaza was tasked with two additional move-outs, and ECR quickly sought out and found replacements, bringing the occupancy back to 100%.
