Fiedler of YUM Brand speaks at LICN's June 24th monthly meeting

The regular monthly meeting of the Long Island Commercial Network (LICN) took place at 8 a.m. at the On Parade Diner on June 24th. The meeting opened with reports from the various committee chairmen. Keith Wilson gave an update on Realtor Day in Albany and the status of various bills that affect homeowners that are before state representatives for consideration. New committee chairmen were announced. Keith Wilson will chair the new member committee and Howell Silverman will chair the technology committee. The guest speaker was Steve Fiedler, franchise development manager for YUM Brands Inc., the parent of fast food restaurants Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Fiedler discussed Yum Brands long range plans for expanding the number of franchise and corporate locations in the N.Y. metro area. Specifically for Long Island, last year 150 locations were opened and this year they expect to open another 200 with a goal of 2,000 locations within the next 10 years. Fiedler described what commercial Realtors should be looking for in terms of ideal conversion of unoccupied/undeveloped commercial sites in terms of size, population density, visibility, proximity to other large retail and parking along with some examples of successful drive thru and in-line locations to get the creative juices flowing so they could more easily visualize potential sites. Build to suit would also be considered. Franchise and investor capital is readily available so funding is not a limitation to their growth. The meeting then broke into individual Realtor presentations on "haves and wants" which allows members a quick public speaking opportunity to let everyone in the room know what new commercial listings are available for co-brokering and what may be needed for existing clients.. This month's new members Rich Kruse, Yvette Watkins and Mohinder Singh Taneja were introduced and welcomed. The next meeting will be July 22nd at 8 a.m. at the On Parade Diner. For sponsorship and new member information, visit LICN's website, www.licommercialnetwork.org/joinlicn.html