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There was plenty in the news this week about office supply retailer Staples' decision to board up 225 stores in North America by the end of next year, on the heels of Radio Shack's announcement they were shutting down 1,100 US stores. (It's gonna be a lot harder to find legal pads.)  Stores have to “earn the right to stay open,” Staples' chairman and CEO Ron Sargent says. Agreed, says CBRE SVP retail Tom Balkos. While there's been plenty of chatter about the impact that e-commerce is having and will have on stores--bricks versus clicks--the Internet is not the death knell for the retail experience at all, Tom says. There are product categories that people would just rather buy online--they don't need the touch and feel. (You don't need to try on a cordless mouse, they always fit.)  Something like fashion is entirely different than office supplies. And people still enjoy the social aspects of going to a big box store, for example. Call it the release of the happy endorphins. One is paying for the experience of shopping at a retail location as well as the actual product, Tom adds. Chains like Staples, which does nearly half of their business online now, are “optimizing their network, assessing the cumulative effects of online shopping” amongst other locational considerations like cannibalization and relo opportunities.  In response to those shoppers that go to the showroom experience, see what they want, then go home to buy on Amazon--it's up to the bricks and mortar guys to up their game. “It's about delivering a compelling in-store experience,” so the shopper doesn't hesitate to buy there. It's as much about the personal identification with the store brand and service as it is about the personal satisfaction of buying the product and bringing it home. “Does the shopper get personal satisfaction from shopping there because it feels good?” Tom asks. (That's a question that has perplexed philosophers since Plato.) |
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Green Beer For All St. Patrick's Day is one of our favourite days of the year, so we completely get it when CoreNET Toronto region Young Leaders Committee comes to us to tell they decided to get an early jump on festivities. (Why not St. Patrick's month?)  Quinn's Steakhouse was the scene for some pre-holiday cheer, where some cocktails and traditional Irish hors d'oeuvres were consumed. Snapped is CBRE's Sarah Clare.  Snapped here are Equinox Development's Michael Fleming and Phillips Properties' Elizabeth Geleff. |
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Fish Tales: A Mexican Adventure |
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 Kind of an early Father's Day in the world of Ashlar Urban Realty's John Carter, who spent some time away from the Polar Vortez fishing in Puerto Morelos with his father Randy. Randy is an “exceptional fisherman and sailor,” John tells us, so if he was ever going to experience deep sea fishing--and this was his first time out--his father was the guy to go with. |
 “His comment to me was, ‘We're not going in until you can't lift your arms, you've caught so many fish,'” John says. The second fish they caught did just that – burned out his arms with the fight it gave. Just as his dad was making those comments, two more fish were on the lines at the same time. No rest for the wicked. “Other than the giant swell [which made for an adventure], it was a perfect day of father/son time,” he says. |
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On Target |
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 On the subject of retail, we reached to DIG360 Consulting's David Ian Gray, a retail analyst, for his thoughts on Target's Canadian troubles, and if he thinks that will make other US retailers think twice about expanding up here. “It will impact the decisions of those who are lazy and don't do their homework on the market,” David says. (There's homework?!) |
 Target's issues are well known, he adds--they expanded too fast; store presentation didn't distinguish them enough from Zellers; logistics issues meant Canadians used to the bounty of selection in the US stores were disappointed in what they found in the Canadian stores; they need to get price points further down where they might still be higher but not “exorbitantly” higher than their US counterparts. “Maybe there was a bit of arrogance there, but they will sort it out,” David says. “Target will be fine in Canada.” In the image is Target Canada prez Tony Fisher. |
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Industrial Renaissance |
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 The multi-tenant deal brokered by Colliers in Hamilton's historic Siemen's Building is welcome news after the closure and exodus of high-profile manufacturers these past few years. Four new tenants--manufacturing companies Chapel Steel, AZZ, Alstom, and Triple Crown Enterprises--leased 223k SF and join landlord and lead tenant Empire Steel on the property. We spoke to the guy who quarterbacked the deals, Colliers International's John MacNamara. |
 The building has different bays with similar characteristics, which made “fitting the puzzle together fairly easy.” The challenges were in the unique characteristics with each tenant's shipping needs. One tenant has steady product flow and needs to drive through the building and go out the other side. (Backing up is for wimps.) Another tenant ships infrequently, but still required an oversized door to send out completed product. “Modifications were made to accommodate both tenants,” John says. Empire even gave up some of their own office space to accommodate a tenant. “Everyone is proud of what the building transformed into,” he says. |
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New Bisnow Education Video!By popular demand, we've just released a second video we did with Peter Linneman, widely considered the top professor of commercial real estate in the US. This new video is called "Real Estate Finance," i.e., on how you get money to do deals. Although an advanced topic, it's purposely very simple to understand. It's 77 minutes, broken into 5-minute increments, so you can watch or listen as you are waiting in line, or at the gym, or lying in bed. (To each his own.) Click here for the new video and here for the old video. |
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