Tuesday, February 15, 2000
Brandt relies on its roots
BY LISA BIANK FASIG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
If software could only flatten hills and magically move rows of charming houses, then work would be a walk in the park for Brandt Retail Group.
Members of the Kenwood-based consulting firm, founded in August by retail broker Steve Brandt and his longtime associates, think they have an edge helping stores find land here and in nearby cities.
That edge: more than 60 years combined experience and close to $20,000 in specialized mapping and demographic software that covers five markets, including Cincinnati.
Not only is this software special for what it can do, it is special for the ways Brandt employees are trained to work it. While most software programs show broad household statistics in a 1-, 3- and 5-mile radius, Brandt can pinpoint a location for retailers by, say, household income, education or age.
“There's really no one else that we're aware of that has the ability to do this mapping and demography,” Mr. Brandt, president, said from his Montgomery Road offices recently. “There are, like, 60 variables.”
This sort of information has been very helpful for clients such as grocery chain Trader Joe's, which is looking for three to four locations to build in Cincinnati. The California retailer asked Brandt to first show it areas that had the highest concentration of post-college education. It then cross-referenced that information with household incomes, narrowing the potential to a few suitable locations. Decisions are pending.
“(The technology is) becoming a little more common, but I would certainly say the Brandt group is on the cutting edge of it,” said Matt Grever, vice president of Bradley Real Estate, a Chicago real estate investment trust with offices in Cincinnati. “They focus specifically on retail.”
The challenge for Brandt Retail Group is finding the right space in a city as hilly and densely built out as Cincinnati. Consider: There are few open places to put together a large store or retail center in Hyde Park or Oakley, and the west side is noted for its dense population and hilly terrain.
Also, a developer has to be quiet — leaks of developments alert the competition in advance and can cause property values to shoot up.
“Just three years ago, everybody was saying it was full” here, said Mark Fallon, director of leasing and brokerage for Cincinnati-based Jeffrey R. Anderson Real Estate. “But if you look outside of the box, we found more opportunities than we can handle.”
Jeffrey Anderson's Skytop Pavilion in Anderson Township required that it buy and assemble a hotel and residential properties, move a creek and cut down half a hill.
Similarly, Brandt Retail overcame challenges when trying to find locations for Washington-based Costco Wholesale warehouse clubs, which requires a market of 300,000 to 400,000 high-income people at each location. Seventeen homes and four acres of property were bought and assembled for the Springdale location to open in late 2001.
“I think developers in Cincinnati need to be more creative than they do in Columbus,” Brandt Vice President Dave Sheehy said. “Cincinnati is a much harder market to develop in because it's more (structurally) mature.”
But, Mr. Brandt added: “I think, needless to say, (with) 2 million people in this marketplace, this is a strong market.”
In Brandt Retail's favor is the local experience of its three partners: Messrs. Brandt and Sheehy and Daniel Wolfe, real estate consultant. Combined, they represent 63 years of retail experience, most of it in Cincinnati. This experience translates to strong business relationships not only with local sources, but national retailers.
“By living here all of our lives, we're sensitive to what the perceptions are about local sites and locations,” Mr. Wolfe said. “You really bring a gut instinct to this game that's important.”
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