Shopping Center Business

DEC 2016

Shopping Center Business is the leading monthly business magazine for the retail real estate industry.

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MOONBEAM 94 • SHOPPING CENTER BUSINESS • December 2016 and connected to their communities. Moonbeam is currently working on deals to repurpose malls for a $250 million medical office and an 800,000-square- foot distribution facility. In North Car- olina, Moonbeam just signed a national college to occupy 30,000 square feet of space. While Moonbeam is expanding its reach with non-traditional tenants such as these, it continues to grow the dining, entertainment and retail options at the malls and centers it manages. During the past year and a half at Greeley Mall in Greeley, Colorado, Moonbeam added approximately 14,000 square feet of en- tertainment users and restaurants, such as Tres Margaritas, as well as national retailer At Home. Maksin says that these successes reinvigorated the mall, which is now 90 percent occupied and seeing increases in rents and tenant sales. "We have a lot of inventory on our hands," he says. "We feel the retailers' pain when a store closes, but if they can't make it work, we'll reconfigure the space, find a way to use it for other purposes, and we'll most likely increase rents and bring vitality and cheerfulness to a center that would otherwise look bleak." Managing under-performing malls when the nature of retail is changing re- quires special qualities and know-how, as well as an experienced and dynamic team. "When it comes to repurposing a mall, you have to have creativity and patience," Pryor says. "While we're waiting for mar- kets to evolve, our team is always trying to figure out in the interim how to utilize short-term or special leasing programs so that we're able to keep bringing in tenants to the shopping malls." Moonbeam's team is vertically integrat- ed, not top-heavy and has the skill sets re- quired to deal successfully with each asset class. Maksin says leasing teams continu- ously share information on new deals they are working on across the country. "We're also bringing in people who are not encumbered by the notion that only retail is retail and office is office," Maksin says. "We assign and reassign our team members to work on national deals and national tenants so that one person gets an all-around experience nationwide. That enables us to develop a team that is very flexible in its thinking. Instead of try- ing to fit in a retail tenant that may not want to be in a particular location, our team members immediately think about all of the possibilities, from medical to education to retail and office." Moonbeam has a wide range of experts in various fields, employing a financial team, legal counsel, marketing special- ists, management and leasing teams. "We're able to brainstorm and develop alternative uses," Maksin says. "Mixed use is complicated. You need to understand your leases; you need to understand what restrictions you have in the land itself; you need to understand what you can do to change the use. And once you have the expertise and teams to do it, it's a great business to be in." With the experience and strong work- ing knowledge in repurposing properties, Moonbeam is now setting its sights on ad- vising other companies. SCB

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