Blog Posts
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This year’s Annual Midwest ICSC Deal-Making Conference in Chicago was “uneventful”. While definitely better attended than last year’s (2009) conference, the retailer turn-out was very light and the booths were dominated by Illinois-based municipalities seeking to attract additional retailers.
Some of the retailers included: Menards, Cash Store, Dollar General, Family Dollar, CVS, Burger King, Big Lots, Meijer, 7-Eleven, AutoZone, Famous Footwear, Dollar Tree, Goodwill, Great Clips, Jimmy Johns, Sally Beauty Supply, SuperValu, Walgreens, and Subway, to name a few.
Notwithstanding the anticipated light turn-out, our team continues to participate in this key networking event because of the importance of maintaining relationships within our industry and to constantly be establishing new ones, both of which are critical to being effective within the retail sector of our industry. Plus, you never know where your next transaction will come from.
Surprisingly enough, we were able to touch base with a national retailer on an impromptu basis at this year’s conference, which generated a new long-term build-to-suit/leaseback arrangement, which paid for the entire event!
We also learned about a new Michigan-based green building certification “SERF” that’s being rolled out specifically for those commercial property owners interested in renovating and bringing their existing facilities up to green standards that wont break the bank. You can find SERF at http://www.serfgreen.org/.
