Roger Delisle: Where are we now, where are we headed and where are the opportunities?

Where are we now? After completing a productive 2010 with two Lowe's (Riverhead/Commack) and three CVS and two Walgreens in Florida 2011 is the year that we desire to past, looking forward to organizing for more transactions for 2012. I am not being facetious when I discuss 2011, this is the year for Island Associates (IA) of transition, where banks/retailers all reassessed their projections for new stores (expansion), where retailers reassessed their thresholds and retraded again to just sit on the side lines. Yes there have been retailers in the enviable position to exploit the retail recession but this represents a minority, when consumer confidence expands one month to only contract for two straight months...all a recipe for contraction. Just as there is a shifting of retailers reassessing their projections so too are there a new field of brokers, some have left the business, some have merged with other brokers and some will do nothing but wait it out. I believe it is irresponsible in this market to wait, IA has been pursuing leasing representation projects with shopping center landlords seeking to divest of their portfolios or at least analysising their values to test the market. Others have are reevaluating their current lease synergies and seeking to create value or complement their existing tenant mix. Most are seeking to retain their existing tenants with a concerted effort to work with the challenged market with suspending increases, allowing assignments, working to expand existing use clauses. IA to accommodate retailers in their pursuant for great market share given most retailers are working on the elusive shrinking margins. Yes IA has been busy preparing for the change in the industry, bracing for push back on retailers, preparing for consumers to benefit from the inevitable lower unemployment (time to be seen), rising consumer confidence, growth of private industry and the expansion of retailers with restocking their inventory to the shopping centers benefiting from the leasing absorption of the new wave of merchants. We see this invariably coming event, just not in 2011, 2012? Now you ask when ? not this year... Roger Delisle Jr. is the managing director at Island Associates Real Estate Inc., Smithtown, N.Y.