Auction.com was one of the hundreds of companies attending the ICSC New York National Conference, but they were probably the only one with a national online auction platform for buyers and sellers to trade retail real estate.
During the show, its team's main takeaway was that interest in retail real estate acquisitions is high. More importantly, those looking to buy have financing in place. "There's more money in the market than was sitting on the sidelines," was how one Auction exec put it. "Nobody needs financing."
Auction was specifically there to dispel the notion to sellers that all the firm does is sell distressed retail assets. The company has sold well-performing fully-leased centers on its platform, owned by such high-profile firms as GGP and EDENS.
They were also there to let brokers know that they won't be shut out of their auction process, and can actually make money on Auction.com. In fact, if they get an asset from a seller, Auction will bring in a preferred broker that it has worked with a lot in the past.
"Initially nobody embraces change, but the brokers who are more aggressive embrace this platform," one Auction exec said. This year Auction.com sold about 200 retail assets totaling $600 million.
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