ORANGE COUNTY, CA—Wireless-phone providers are very active in the Orange County retail arena, with contract and economy carriers each seeking their own place in separate retail centers, Westwood Financial Corp.'s VP of asset management Katrina Nadres-Hurtado tells GlobeSt.com. We spoke with her exclusively about this emerging trend, what types of centers these users are seeking and how the trend is affecting tenant mix.

GlobeSt.com: What have you noticed with regard to mobile-phone carriers' use of retail space?

Nadres-Hurtado: They're very active right now. There's a lot of activity in that sector for sure from all different kinds of carriers and price points—the bigger brands like AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile as well as the lower-priced tiered providers like Metro PCS and Cricket. They're demo driven, for sure, and they look at income and housing. You wouldn't normally see a Metro PCS in the same shopping center as a Verizon Wireless, but you might see a Metro PCS and a Cricket across the street from each other or a Sprint and a T-Mobile in the same center. Most tenants wouldn't want to have a competitor in the same center, but they don't mind. They're not afraid to go toe to toe because they believe in their product, service and network. Technology changes so quickly that people want to have the convenience of going to their provider nearby, and customers tend to be loyal to their network.

GlobeSt.com: Which types of retail centers are these users targeting, and which types do they avoid?

Nadres-Hurtado: We own grocery-anchored centers, for the most part, and wireless providers are always in the mix in our shopping centers. We target that category heavily, even in the unanchored strip centers. Usually, these are the lower, no-contract carriers, but there are still some unanchored centers where T-Mobile will go. I haven't seen a product type that they will avoid.

GlobeSt.com: What impact is this having on the tenant mix in these centers?

Nadres-Hurtado: There are accompanying tenants that come with them, such as cell-phone repair companies. They really benefit from more of a service-merchandise mix-up like dry cleaners, who like multiple-visits-a-week centers. The providers want it to be convenient for customers to make a payment, upgrade their phone or buy an accessory.

GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about these users?

Nadres-Hurtado: They're here, and with the fast pace of technology, it will be interesting to see what they start selling next. They're now saying there's a program that can refund money to emails, and there's a program that can search your e-mail and draft a reply based on that email.

Also, there's an interesting phenomenon that takes place when a technology-based user becomes obsolete. When Radio Shack went bankrupt, Sprint was one of the buyers that bought their real estate. It's indicative of the wireless industry; they were banking on taking at least a portion of the real estate that Radio Shack owned. The first permutation of it was when Blockbuster went out of business and the Dish Network bought a lot of their space. With Sprint, it makes a lot more sense. It's still in the beginning phase, and part of the absorption and rebranding, but it speaks to what the wireless industry is planning on doing. Radio Shack was everywhere—it was ubiquitous in retail commercial space.

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Carrie Rossenfeld

Carrie Rossenfeld is a reporter for the San Diego and Orange County markets on GlobeSt.com and a contributor to Real Estate Forum. She was a trade-magazine and newsletter editor in New York City before moving to Southern California to become a freelance writer and editor for magazines, books and websites. Rossenfeld has written extensively on topics including commercial real estate, running a medical practice, intellectual-property licensing and giftware. She has edited books about profiting from real estate and has ghostwritten a book about starting a home-based business.