Shopping Centers Today

NOV 2016

Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)

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refreshing the restaurant category, be- cause nothing lasts forever, especially in the restaurant world," Mastin said. To land operators for Pizitz Food Hall, Bayer Properties hired the authors of a blog titled What to Eat in Birmingham as consultants. The husband-and-wife blog- gers — one is a physician and the other is a scientist — were critical to the success of leasing efforts for the food hall, says Bayer. They also generated valuable publicity for Pizitz. "They knew so many of the hot, rising F&B; operators and made the intro- ductions for us," Bayer said. "These were [food operators] that had the expertise but not always the locations they wanted. We are fully leased … and I believe our leasing wouldn't be at the level that it is without the bloggers' help." Some landlords are pursuing short- term partnerships with restaurateurs in a bid to help these operators get estab- lished. "They're taking an equity posi- tion and making the money available, but then giving restaurateurs the op- portunity to buy themselves back," said Bayer, who has formed no partnerships with any Pizitz tenants. "The restaura- teur can get rid of the landlord or invest- ment group within a couple of years and become a sole practitioner." Other partnerships are so successful that they last over the long haul and blossom into full-fledged businesses, says Orkin. "The restaurateur and the landlord investor say: 'Hey, this model works. Let's go on and build partner- ships outside of specific real estate that the landlord owns,' " he said. "They become financial partners who do deals in third-party landlord situations. I have seen it in a number of cases with some pretty successful restaurateurs and well-known regional landlords." Over the years, Steiner & Associates has seen several of its food operators, including Brio and Ocean Prime, grow into popular concepts with units across the country, says Mastin. The developer, known for projects like Easton Town Center, in Columbus, Ohio, is a true be- liever in the power of food-and-beverage. "At Easton last year we did well excess of $100 million in restaurant volume alone," Mastin said. "That is just the sit- down restaurants — not even counting things like smoothies, yogurts and ice cream. We have known for a long time that restaurants drive traffic. They are an important part of what we do." S C T N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 6 / S C T 47

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