Retail space advisers: questions that separate a retail specialist from a generalist

Q: Do I need a retail specialist lawyer for a small unit?

For any lease with [percentage rent](/retail-space-cost), an exclusive or center rules, yes. Those clauses are where the money is, and a general review will pass over them.

The services a retailer buys describe themselves the same way: a representative to find the unit, a data provider to justify it, a designer to fit it, and a lawyer to sign it. To tell them apart, interview them about retail specifically. Retail has its own clauses, approvals, and ways of failing, so a generalist will not know them.

This page gives you the questions. It does not rank anyone.

What to take away

Hire for the retail-specific knowledge each service needs, and test for it with questions a generalist cannot answer.
Ask any footfall or catchment data provider how the number was counted, when, and where.
Run every candidate through one real unit you already know. Their reading of it is the audition.

Start from what you cannot do yourself

Most of a retail search can be done by the retailer: standing outside units, counting, reading the use table, asking the planning office. The services worth paying for are the ones that need access, expertise or time you do not have.

What a retail adviser must add

Market accesshears about units first
Lease expertiseretail clauses, not office
Design and approvalsknows local signage rules
Licensingregular contact saves months
If none of these, you pay for convenience

Market access.Units in managed centers and on the better streets are often placed before they are advertised. A representative who talks to those landlords hears first.
Lease expertise.Retail leases carry percentage rent, exclusives, co-tenancy, relocation and continuous operation clauses that a general commercial lawyer sees rarely. The general framework is in commercial leasing; the retail additions are where the specialist earns the fee.
Design and approvals.A shopfitter who has worked in the same center, or under the same municipality's signage rules, knows what will be refused.
Licensing.If you sell anything that needs a license, someone who deals with that office regularly saves months.

If a service does not add one of those, you are paying for convenience, which is fine if you know it.

The questions that show whether they know retail

Put these to a representative, and listen for the specifics.

Questions that expose retail knowledge

Which exclusives affect my category here?
What co-tenancy protection was agreed recently?
How do you check the certificate of occupancy?
Where does delivery access go, at what hours?
How do you count footfall, and how is it different?
What went wrong on your last retail deal?

Which centers or streets in this area have exclusives that would affect my category, and how do you find out?
What co-tenancy protection have landlords here agreed to recently, and for what size of tenant?
How do you check what a unit's certificate of occupancy allows before you show it to me?
Where does the delivery access for this unit actually go, and at what hours?
How do you count footfall for a unit, and how does your count differ from the center's? A supplier who will not describe the method is selling confidence; the federal travel volume trends program publishes both its numbers and how they were produced, and that is the standard to hold a vendor to.
What went wrong on the last retail deal you did, and what would you do differently?

A representative who knows retail answers with names of clauses, offices and hours. One who does not answers with confidence. The reasoning they should be applying to a site is the one described in retail space; if they cannot describe it, they will not do it.

Data providers: ask how it was counted

Footfall, catchment and demographic services sell numbers. The numbers may be right and still not answer your question.

Interrogate the footfall count

Sensor, mobile data, or a person?
Which point, days and hours?
Both sides of the street, or one?
How old is the data, what changed?
Does it separate hurrying from browsing?
How is the catchment boundary drawn?

Was the count taken by a sensor, by mobile data, or by a person? At which point, on which days, at which hours?
Does it count passers on both sides of the street, or one?
How old is the data, and what has changed on the street since?
Does it distinguish people in a hurry from people browsing? Almost none can.
For a catchment, how is the boundary drawn, and does it respect barriers such as a main road or a river that cut the real trade area?

Buy the data as a check on your own counts, not as a substitute for them. Where the choice of district itself is still open, a demographic report is more useful, and the way to combine it with a site visit is set out in location selection.

Designers and shopfitters: ask about the approvals, not the drawings

Every designer shows you drawings. Ask instead:

Ask about approvals, not drawings

Which approvals, from landlord and authority, in what order?
Has a shopfront or sign been refused here?
Do you have the current landlord design guide?
How do you handle the landlord review period?
What depends on power, extract or drainage?
Who owns the fit-out at lease end?
How does the entrance meet ADA standards?

Which approvals will this design need, from the landlord and from the local authority, and in what order?
Have you had a shopfront or a sign refused here, and why?
What does the landlord's design guide for this center require, and do you have the current version?
How do you handle the landlord's review period in the program?
What in your design depends on a service the unit may not have: power, extract, drainage?
Who owns the fit-out at the end of the lease, and have you designed with removal in mind?
How does the entrance measure against the 2010 ADA Standards, and what would need changing?

The answer to the last question shows whether they have thought past opening day. The way an allowance and a landlord's works interact with the design is covered in tenant improvements.

Lawyers: ask about the clauses retail adds

Ask a lawyer which clauses they open first in a retail lease from a managed center. The ones you want: gross sales, the breakpoint formula, the exclusive and its remedy, co-tenancy, and relocation.

Retail lease vs office lease

Retail lease

First clauses opened: Gross sales, breakpoint
Exclusives: Clause and remedy
Co-tenancy: Protection negotiated
Relocation: Landlord right to move you
Continuous operation: Must keep trading
Radius and center rules: Restrict nearby stores

Office lease

First clauses opened: Rent, term, repair
Exclusives: Rarely present
Co-tenancy: Not standard
Relocation: Uncommon
Continuous operation: Not typical
Radius and center rules: Not included

Then continuous operation, radius, the center rules by reference, the commencement definition, and if the answer is rent, term and repair, that is an office lease.

Then ask what the landlord's form in this area usually contains that tenants regret. A lawyer who has done retail here will have a list.

A one-site test

Pick a unit you have already assessed yourself, and ask each candidate to look at it.

One-site test for each service

Representativename risks and first landlord question
Data providerproduce a count and describe the method
Designerlist approvals and missing services
Lawyername three clauses to negotiate first
Licensing adviserwhich office decides, how long

What to ask them to do

Representative: Identify the risks and what they would ask the landlord first
Data provider: Produce a count and describe how it was made
Designer: List the approvals and the services the unit lacks
Lawyer: Name the three clauses they would negotiate first
Licensing adviser: Say which office decides, and how long it typically takes

What you are checking

Representative: Whether they see position, rules and use, not just area
Data provider: Whether the method matches your trading hours
Designer: Whether they design for the unit or for the brochure
Lawyer: Whether they know retail clauses
Licensing adviser: Whether they deal with that office

Compare their reading with yours. Where they saw something you missed, you have found value. Where they missed something you saw, you have found the limit of the service.

Common questions

Do I need a retail specialist lawyer for a small unit?

For any lease with percentage rent, an exclusive or center rules, yes. Those clauses are where the money is, and a general review will pass over them.

Is a representative paid by the landlord working for me?

They are working for the deal. Good ones manage that honestly; ask what happens to their fee if you walk away, and get their advice in writing.

Should I buy footfall data before visiting?

After. Your own counts tell you what question the data has to answer, and you will read the report differently once you have stood on the street.

What is the single best test of any of these services?

The one-site audition. An hour of their thinking about a unit you know is worth more than any presentation.