Wealth Opportunities in Commercial Real Estate: Management, Financing, and Marketing of Investment Properties

Marketing

What should marketing a real estate project entail? Of course, the scope of the assignment has a direct relationship with the nature of the property and the extent of the vacant space that must be leased. A game plan must be thought out and preferably committed to paper.

Historically, marketing has been conducted by the landlord or a marketing association, or in conjunction with a marketing fund. Usually, the marketing association or the marketing fund is controlled by the landlord since it is funded by contributions from the tenants and the landlord, typically on a matching fund basis. Marketing associations are uncommon today, since the same objectives can be accomplished through a marketing fund without negative tax repercussions. Even marketing funds are rare. They are usually found in larger shopping centers where the landlord has had the bargaining power to build this obligation into all of the leases because of the desirability of the property. Retailers are usually resistant to contributing to such a fund since they are sensitive to increasing their expense line items and they argue that they already are expending monies directed at marketing their stores. For purposes of this section, it is assumed that the landlord will be the sole active player in marketing the property and conducting any and all efforts to market in an attempt to secure new or replacement tenants.

Let's assume we have just acquired Crossroads Plaza, a 120,000-square-foot shopping center with ...