Langer of Zelnik & Company discusses the retail market

Name: Adam Langer Title: Director Company/Firm: Zelnik & Company Years with company/firm: 6 Years in field: 6 Years in real estate industry: 6 Telephone: (212) 223 2200 Email: [email protected] URL: www.zelnikco.com Real Estate Associations/Affiliations: ICSC QUESTIONS: Reply to 3 or more What are you hoping to accomplish by attending and/or exhibiting at the show and what is different about this year's show? I'm hoping to make contacts with NY based developers/landlords as well as retailers hoping to expand or move into the NYC retail marketplace. The ICSC convention provides a good opportunity to better establish connections with contacts in my network by having meetings to "put a face to the name" after spending so much time communicating by phone or email. I'm currently working with retailers that are looking to aggressively expand in NYC and ICSC provides an excellent platform to seek out opportunities for tenants and landlords alike. Are retailers finding the types of properties that they want right now and are tenants happy with the sites available to them? The retail market has gotten extremely tight over the past few years and it has become more and more difficult to uncover spaces that will satisfy retailers. There has been such a drastic change in the market from 5 years ago and it makes it hard for tenants to accept that what once may have been available 3 years ago is either not there or only available at a steep premium now. How did your company withstand the recession and what changes have you made to grow and succeed during the recovery of the retail market? Our company withstood the recession by keeping our heads down and focusing on the tenants that we knew were active and the landlords we were working for that needed space leased. While most people in the industry were complaining and worried about the sky falling, we stayed positive and focused our attention on the tenants that saw the downturn in the economy as an opportunity. We found that there were still plenty of deals out there to be made. As someone who was newer to the industry when the recession hit, it was a perfect opportunity for me to learn and understand the full process of a deal from start to finish. Deals moved more slowly and allowed me to ask questions along the way. Since then, I have kept in touch with a lot of the tenants that were waiting on the sidelines and are now interested in getting more involved with NYC real estate. The recession served as a great lesson of why follow- up is so important.