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LAS VEGAS—You could look at it as putting the cart before the horse. But Jeff Rinkov, CEO of Lee & Associates, is frank in his estimate of why he was once told his shop was the best kept secret in commercial real estate. “It was essential that we first build a national network to service our specialty practice groups—office, industrial, retail, investment and valuation—and then spend the time, effort and resources expanding their presence,” he tells GlobeSt.com. Otherwise, he notes, “We simply would have hampered all five groups.”

Clearly, he feels that the first goal has been sufficiently achieved that RECon 2015 becomes a coming-out party of sorts, a year of outreach, as he calls it, even though, in reality, the retail initiative is nearly 10 years old and boasts roughly 90 brokers around the US. But at the time of its inception, Lee's reach pretty much stopped at Chicago. It is Lee's year, he says, “to show the strength of our retail focus, to continue our existing relationships and build new.” 

In a sort of chicken-and-egg parallel, Lee's national growth was expedited by the presence of a retail market, and Rinkov notes that the discipline was “a large and positive driver of where we look for expansion opportunities.” He cites Manhattan as one target destination that was facilitated by the onboard retail strength of its partner there.

There are three other factors that have helped Lee's retail growth in MSAs around the map. The first is the firm's industrial-market strength. “Between distribution and storefront, our services become vertical,” says Rinkov. The second is the cross-market collaboration that exists among principals in all Lee outposts.  

And the third is quarterly market reports for each of the disciplines, and the Q1 retail study is now approaching its first year, an important milestone in that Rinkov's team will be able to benchmark data year-over-year and—more important—analyze projected trends.

It's easy to look back to sum up what everyone knows took place over the previous quarter. But, says the CEO, “We're trying to do something a little different in that we're trying to get more aggressive in our forecasting.” That added value of interpretation can then inform the historical data in that “We'll be enabled to say we were right or we were wrong but here's why.”

So what was the major headline from the Q1 report? “Very robust demand,” says Rinkov. “The consumer is doing his job, tenants and landlords are doing their jobs populating their centers with the retail that the consumer wants. And we're starting to see development and the strengthening of rental rates. It's what we've been seeing in other product types but now it's coming in a more robust and widespread way in retail.”

Doing a deeper dive, Rinkov notes that the Millennials are driving the push for retail in the CBDs. “We have a large group of newly employed people who are looking for pedestrian retail and entertainment opportunities,” he says. Turning to the 'burbs, it's all about lifestyle centers—as opposed to malls.

“The American mall still has its place,” he says, “and it will continue to thrive, but we're getting into a cross-section of younger consumers who want to shop where they live and work and have entertainment and food options where they live and work. So CBD mixed-use is definitely a product type in which we will see tremendous growth.” Rinkov clearly is expecting much the same for Lee in Vegas this week.