Commerce + Communities Today talked to experts from every corner of the Marketplaces Industry in 2022. Here are some of the wisest quips and quotes from the past 12 months.

1

“It is a lost opportunity when your marketing team is just focusing on attaining the national tenants. There is a space for them — we certainly need them from a credit standpoint on the rent roll — but there are also financial rewards by carving out some of that space in our centers for local tenants, as well.”
Agora Realty & Management CEO Cary Lefton
A Developer That Has Devoted Space to Micro-Tenants Since 1999 — and Has Seen the Benefits

2

“Good real estate does not come on the market. You need relationships to get the A-class space.”
Jersey Mike’s Franchise Systems president Hoyt Jones
10 Takeaways from ICSC NEW YORK

3

“Making global comments like, ‘All malls need to do X,’ can be dangerous. Each one is so different."
Trademark founder and CEO Terry Montesi
The Road Maps (Plural) for Reinventing Enclosed Malls

4

“If you don’t have a trust fund and you don’t have a way to make money for 18 months, that automatically excludes you from our industry on the brokerage side.”
ASÍ Real Estate Investments founder and CEO Alexis Suarez
How Alexis Suarez Built a Successful U.S. Real Estate Company by Embracing Her Latino Background

5

“There is a lot of demand right now from owners that have existing real estate that needs a new perspective. They need a new vision. They’re looking for perhaps some new and in some respects unconventional ways to realize value creation through redevelopment.”
CenterCal Properties COO Paul Kurzawa
Why Boutique-Minded CenterCal Will Help Others Reprogram to Mixed-Use

6

“You cannot create a project that fits all the buckets of social impact and still get the highest return that you would in a luxury high-rise, high-income neighborhood. That’s just not realistic, but we do think that a healthy risk-adjusted return can certainly be gotten in these projects. We’ve seen that and proved it out with our underwriting. It’s important, though, that people understand and look at the risk-adjusted piece of it.”
MURAL Real Estate Partners founder and CEO Robin Zeigler
You Can Make Money in Underserved Communities, Says Robin Zeigler

7

“Property management is focused, more than ever, on the retailer tenant experience.”
Cushman & Wakefield executive managing director of asset services in Canada Molly Westbrook
Property Managers Used to Serve Properties. Now They Serve Tenants, Landlords and Consumers

8

“I’ve yet to hear a brand that we’re doing business with tell me that they’re slowing their expansion plans. Unfortunately, what we are experiencing is that a number of brands that wanted to open X number of stores by the end of the year are instead opening something fewer than X because they can’t get the supplies, building materials or fixtures on time.”
Newmark Retail Services global chair Mark Masinter
Newmark’s Push into Retail: Q&A with New Retail Head Mark Masinter

9

“The biggest challenges are behind us. E-commerce was the big one that was going to kill the mall. As the world now seems to fully appreciate, both physical and digital not only do coexist synergistically, but they must coexist in order to maximize profitability and brand potential.”
Macerich senior executive vice president and CFO Scott Kingsmore
Macerich’s Outlook: Tenants, Rent Power, Mixed-Use and More

10

“Retailers can only grow comps so much. They will need to open new stores to keep growing sales.”
JLL retail advisory services president Naveen Jaggi
What Happened in Vegas: Tenants Looking, Entertainment Uses, Interest Rates, URW and More