Everything Retail

Antonoff & Co. Brokerage, Inc. specializes in retail real estate and only retail real estate. We pride ourselves on our broad knowledge of Colorado retail markets including leasing, pad and land sales, investment sales, tenant representation and land assemblage. As a result of our retail focus for three generations in Colorado, we have built great relationships with many participants in the real estate industry and often have knowledge of developments, available spaces and tenants that are not widely known. Because of our extensive experience in development and as owners of real properties, we are able to look at deals through our clients’ eyes, and we understand how best to create value for our clients.

Leasing. We are experts in leasing retail space for developers and landlords. Our brokers have nearly 100 years of collective experience in leasing grocery-anchored centers, neighborhood centers, power centers and urban developments. Our level of leasing activity provides us with a very broad base of market knowledge that we can utilize to the benefit of our clients. We assist our developer and owner clients at all stages of projects from pre-development, to new construction, to second and third generation spaces. We understand that leasing and maintaining occupancy is the key to our clients’ profitability. We work exceptionally hard to get all our clients’ spaces leased including the often difficult last few spaces knowing what those last few leases can do to maximize our clients’ returns.

Our approach to leasing is a strategic one:

• First, we commence the process with a detailed evaluation of the space available for lease, the surrounding trade area, and the existing tenant mix both within the center and in competing centers in the trade area.
• Second, working hand in hand with our client, we explore our client’s goals, and types or categories of tenants that our client finds particularly desirable or undesirable.
• Third, we then identify categories of tenants that (1) are missing from the trade area; (2) meet our client’s goals and desires; and (3) are a good fit for the sizes and configurations of the available spaces.
• Fourth, we execute the plan by contacting individual tenants that meet all of the foregoing criteria.
• Fifth, we assist our client by providing information to help our client understand the experience and creditworthiness of any proposed tenant, and assist in the preparation and negotiation of letters of intent and leases.
• Finally, throughout the leasing process we work closely with our client and our client’s consultants (such as attorneys, architects, designers, sign companies and contractors) as well as city officials in various departments.

Investment Brokerage. Our investment sales team can help you with all of your retail acquisition and disposition needs in Colorado and around the country through our membership in Site Source, a national retail real estate network. We are happy to provide you with a free, no obligation valuation and/or proposal to list your property.

If you own retail property, our investment sales team is prepared to work with you to help you to meet your objectives, whether they be immediate sale or maximization of the value of your asset. Unlike many other brokers, our approach is very hands-on and involved throughout the sales process. Following are some of the ways that we will assist you:

• First, we will help you decide when it would be best to bring the property to market and how to best to position it, e.g. strong cash flow ideal for long term hold, submarket’s low cost provider, value-added opportunity, etc. If leasing of vacant spaces in your property would help you to achieve your sales goal, our leasing team can assist you to accomplish the leasing while the preliminary steps in the sales process are accomplished.
• Second, once the decision to go to market has been made, we will prepare a careful valuation and market analysis designed to optimize value and will inform you of your property’s opportunities and challenges.
• Third, we will prepare a professional, thorough and detailed property sales package for the property.
• Fourth, we will require any prospective purchaser to sign a confidentiality agreement prior to releasing the package so as to preserve the confidentiality of your leasing and other property information.
• Fifth, we will post the property on our website, as well as CoStar, Loopnet, Property Line and Xcelligent – real estate websites frequently used by investors and brokers.
• Sixth, we will make personal contacts with the most active investment brokers, prepare a brief property summary for mailings to investors, post property signage (where appropriate), and will commence a regular email campaign to brokers and potential buyers.
• Seventh, we will assist you in selecting a buyer selection by providing you with information about the buyer’s previous investment activity and credit worthiness and will help you find the buyer that offers the best balance of price, ability and track record of closing as well as shortness of time in escrow.
• Eighth, we will work with you and your advisors to craft a workable sales contract that insures sufficient earnest money, timely due diligence, responsive title services, the meeting of deadlines and early conversion of the deposit to non-refundable money.
• Ninth, we will help you select a reputable and responsive title company and assist you in working through the title requirements and exceptions.
• Tenth, we will work tirelessly during the escrow period to maintain adherence to the contact’s various provisions and contingencies.
• Eleventh, we will assist the buyer in helping them obtain new financing or assume the existing loan, get timely third-party reports and resolve any questions, objections or difficulties they may have.
• Twelfth, we will assist you in obtaining estoppel certificates from the property’s tenants in preparation for closing.
• Finally, we will work with the parties and the title company to arrange for a smooth and timely closing.

Assemblage and Development Opportunities. One of our unique strengths is the identification of development and redevelopment opportunities. At any time, we are working on a number of development and re-development opportunities that may be right for you as an investor or developer. We have successfully assembled some very difficult pieces of land and turned them into thriving developments. We also pride ourselves in finding development opportunities in up-and-coming and overlooked areas.

Tenant Representation. As with our leasing services, our approach to tenant representation is a strategic one:

• First, we get to know our clients and their businesses in detail. The better we understand our clients’ businesses and what makes them unique, the better prepared we are to find locations that will give our clients that best chance for success.
• Second, we collaborate with our clients regarding submarkets within the metro area that will be a good fit for them and their businesses based upon factors as varied as convenience for our client, target demographics, size needed, desired co-tenancy, visibility and access. As part of that process, we will perform in-depth competition analyses of the submarkets that have been identified as potentially a good fit.
• Third, we will discuss the results of those studies with our clients, and together work to narrow our focus to the markets that present the best opportunities.
• Fourth, we will work to uncover all appropriate opportunities within the submarket(s) we have agreed upon. In many cases, those opportunities are not readily apparent as we may through our research uncover spaces that are coming available in the future, planned new developments, or properties that are not on the market.
• Fifth, we work with on our client’s behalf in preparing and negotiating letters of intent and leases with landlords and brokers, as applicable.
• Finally, throughout the leasing process we work closely with our clients and their consultants (such as attorneys, architects, designers, sign companies and contractors) as well as city officials in various departments.

Pad and Land Sales. One of the retail real estate services in which we specialize is pad and land sales. We work with both buyers and sellers of pad sites and vacant land (entitled or unentitled).

Seller Representation

In our representation of sellers of pad sites and vacant land, we go through a detailed process to ensure that the seller’s goals are realized:

• First, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the property by scrutinizing the neighborhood surrounding the parcel including the demographics, traffic patterns, current and future commercial activity in the vicinity of the parcel, the types and nature of retail uses in the area with an eye toward potentially competing or complementary uses, identity of adjacent owners, and relevant sales comps in the area. We also look (along with the seller’s professional consultants) at the characteristics of the property itself including its typography, ingress/egress, environmental condition, potential wetlands and any other characteristics of the property that could affect its salability.
• Second, we, together with the seller’s attorneys and other consultants, determine the applicable governmental authorities’ process and timing for obtaining necessary approvals and building permits, and attempt to obtain an idea of the scale and nature of the development that the governmental authority thinks is achievable on the property.
• Third, we discuss our findings with our client and attempt to structure a sale that will best meet our client’s goals. Some of the more significant issues that typically need to be discussed include the sales price, whether or not the seller is willing to carry back financing (and if so, upon what terms), how long the seller is willing to allow a buyer to tie up the property to obtain entitlements, the amount of earnest money required, and how and when the earnest money becomes nonrefundable.
• Fourth, we mutually agree on a marketing plan for the property and prepare a detailed marketing package that highlights the parcel’s attributes.
• Fifth, we identify categories of potential buyers that are consistent with our client’s goals and desires including (1) retailers not present in the trade area; (2) owners of other properties in the neighborhood; (3) developers of the type of project intended for the property; and (4) owners of similar properties elsewhere in the metropolitan area.
• Sixth, we contact the potential buyers that we identify as well as all active retail and land brokers in the Denver metropolitan area. We also post the property on Antonoff & Co. Brokerage, Inc.’s web site and numerous other web sites where potential buyers and brokers search for properties.
• Seventh, once we have interest from prospective buyers, we assist our client by providing information to help our client understand the history, related experience, expertise and creditworthiness of the proposed buyers, and assist in the preparation and negotiation of letter of intent and purchase and sale contract.
• Finally, throughout the acquisition process we work closely with our client, the buyer and the buyer’s consultants (such as attorneys, land surveyors, architects and contractors) as well as city officials to insure that the buyer follows the timelines set out in the contract as well as to identify any potential obstacles to closing so that we can proactively help to solve problems as early in the sales process as possible.

Buyer Representation

In our representation of buyers in finding a pad site or vacant land, our process is geared toward finding the location that is best suited to the buyer’s business or presents an opportunity for a developer to fill a niche in the market and create value. In our representation of buyers who intend to operate a business on the land, we go through the following process to find land that is the best fit for our buyer’s business:

• First, we gather as much information about the buyers’ business as possible including budget, number of locations needed or intended to service the market, type of property needed (e.g. zoning), size, what type of access required, visibility, timing, typical customer base, preferred co-tenancy, and whether or not a drive-through facility is required (together, “Buyer’s Criteria”).
• Second, we perform a market analysis to locate the best properties that fit Buyer’s Criteria. At this stage, we not only identify properties that may fit Buyer’s Criteria, but will also provide an analysis of what is happening in the area that may affect the buyer’s business or the property including matters such as new or proposed tenancies in the trade area, realignment of roads, rezoning proposals concerning the parcel under consideration or nearby parcels, new transportation alternatives to the area, and demographic trends.
• Third, we discuss our findings with the buyer and narrow down the choices to those parcel(s) that best fit the Buyer’s Criteria. Once we have agreed on the parcel(s) to pursue, we will work with the buyer and the buyer’s attorney to prepare and submit an offer to purchase, which will typically be in the form of a letter of intent. Usually, there is a period of negotiation of the letter of intent, which will address some of the more salient business points of the transaction. Once the letter of intent is agreed upon, a purchase and sale agreement will be drafted and negotiated by the buyer and seller and their attorneys. We work closely will our buyer clients through this process.
• Fourth, once a contract is executed by the seller and buyer, we will provide an outline to the buyer of the critical dates in the contract, and then guide the buyer through the due diligence process. During the due diligence phase of the project, we typically provide a comprehensive analysis of the property by scrutinizing the neighborhood surrounding the parcel including the demographics, traffic patterns, current and future activity in the vicinity of the parcel, the types and nature of retail uses in the area with an eye toward potentially competing or complementary uses, and list applicable sales comps in the area.. We also advise our clients to work with professional consultants to evaluate the characteristics of the property itself including its typography, ingress/egress, environmental condition, potential wetlands and any other characteristics of the property that could affect the buyer’s ability to develop or use the property. As an aside, please note that it is not uncommon to identify a site and not be able to reach an acceptable agreement with the seller on price or other terms, in which event we will need to start the process anew with another group of properties.
• Fifth, we will work with the buyer’s attorneys and other consultants (e.g., engineers and architects) to determine the process and timing through the applicable governmental authorities for obtaining necessary approvals and building permits. At this stage, working with the buyer’s consultants, we should be able to obtain an idea of the scale and nature of the development that the governmental authority thinks is achievable on the parcel. Depending upon the results of the analysis described in this paragraph, it may be necessary to at this point to revisit some of the analysis performed in the “Fourth” stage.
• Sixth, we provide assistance to the buyer in obtaining financing for the acquisition and/or development of the property.
• Seventh, if buyer through its due diligence determines that the property is acceptable, we will assist the buyer in getting prepared for closing including coordination with the seller, the title company and the source of financing, if any. If buyer through its due diligence determines that the property is unacceptable, we will assist the buyer in terminating the contract, and will begin the process to identify new properties all over again.

Developer Representation

In our representation of developers, we go through a process similar to that outlined above for buyer representation to find profitable development opportunities that are a fit for the developer in regard to the type, scale and nature of the development and that fill a niche in the market.