When athletes push themselves beyond what they believe to be their physical limitations, they find themselves performing at their true peak ability. Likewise, Performance Plus is a program Weingarten created to continuously push the boundaries of our assets to create greater value. This blog will describe some examples of how creative, out-of-the-box thinking increased revenue by finding juice in our parking lot.
In a Global Meeting at the Western Division Conference, Weingarten proposed an unconventional build out for Ross Dress for Less in the Placerville, CA market. We looked at our existing asset with a creative view, and determined we could take four contiguous vacant shop spaces plus a large parking field in the rear of the center to create a 25,000 square foot junior anchor position for Ross Dress for Less. In order to complete the new anchor position, three retailers needed to be relocated within the center. Knowing how much additional foot traffic Ross would bring, those retailers welcomed their new locations in the center. The additional GLA significantly increased the asset’s value and established the center as a key location for other apparel retailers.
On the other coast, in Florida, Sr. VP Steve Weingarten and his team worked hard exercising their ability to create value. Making changes at three properties and adding outparcel buildings they were able to increase net asset value by over $10m.
In order for Publix to reopen at Marketplace at Dr. Phillips, Weingarten had to provide the store with more parking. Our boots on the ground approach led us to discover that a detention pond could be paved over to allow for an additional 60+ parking spaces. With Publix satisfied and the anchor position filled, we are able to increase the asking rents on the remaining shop space by 35-50%.
Another example of Performance Plus in action is at Argyle Village Shopping Center in Jacksonville, FL. An interruption of contiguous space between Publix and the adjacent shop space spurred the idea to fill in the gap with 3,000 square feet of spec space. The value created from the additional GLA will amount to approximately half a million dollars.
Lastly, Weingarten saw an opportunity to maximize cash flow at a regional power center in Sanford, FL with historically low vacancy. An 8,500 square foot outparcel building was built on an area originally slated for a fast-food building. The two end caps are now occupied by restaurants with Chipotle anchoring the outparcel. The result of creatively finding additional square feet in the parking lot added over $2 million in value.
Performance Plus encourages the opportunity to envision unlimited revenue potential at each one of our properties. This new outlook has showed us the value of finding juice in our parking lots. Just as all athletes strive to be faster, stronger and ultimately perform at the pinnacle of their abilities; Weingarten is finding with that extra little push, we are able to extract even more revenue from our existing assets.
