by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Geneva Henderson of Lat Purser & Associates and Larry Walshaw of Business Condo’s USA took part in a panel discussion at last month’s Commercial Real Estate Women of Jacksonville meeting held at the Marriott Southpoint, answering questions regarding their thoughts on retail in Jacksonville and its effect on urban lifestyle.
“For those of you that don’t know, the retail market is 95- 6 percent occupied,” said Henderson. “Development has come a long way. There are a lot more community and power strips versus neighborhood stores.”
Henderson handles tenant representation of several restaurants including Quizno’s, Atlanta Bread Company, Starbucks, Peterbrooke and Jamba Juice.
“There are a lot of good people doing a great job of bringing retail projects online,” said Henderson. “Retail projects today are so much better than they were 10-15 years ago.”
Walshaw is the developer and provider of commercial, retail and business condominiums.
Jeff Evans of Colliers Dickinson was the moderator and asked him how he keeps his product competitively priced. Walshaw said his company has to take into account the land and the current prices.
“When you are trying to do a development, you have to first find the right piece of land and at the right price,” said Walshaw. “You have to make sure the construction costs will match up with what the market will bear.”
Walshaw said when his company started developing business condominiums, they priced their product so that it was cheaper to own than to rent.
“You have to determine what the lease rates are out there and then figure out how they can own for less than a lease,” he said. “A current issue right now is the cost of construction materials. Construction materials have gone up dramatically over the last few years.”
Walshaw said he is building new projects in areas where there isn’t a lot of development, knowing that it will follow soon.
“We say ‘lead,’ not ‘follow’,” he said.
The next topic discussed was tenant mix and the panelists discussed how The St. Johns Town Center is prime example of how large developments use anchor tenants to keep the shopping center retail driven. Smaller projects that are around 15,000 to 20,000 square feet are usually created for specific uses such as a dry cleaner, copy store, hair salon or insurance company.
Henderson talked about how shopping centers are being based around large tenants such as Lowe’s, Home Depot, Wal-Mart or Target.
“If any of those four stores go into a development, it will be successful,” said Henderson.
Another issue discussed was how Henderson and Walshaw find tenants and or buyers.
Walshaw said it is important to continue to cold call, be a part of groups and share yourself with the community.
“They think impact fees will stop development,” said Walshaw. “It doesn’t stop development, it only drives up prices,” said Walshaw. “They should let the development happen and the tax base from that development will take care of the fees.”