In retail property and shopping centre performance today, the tenant mix and the income created from the tenants in occupancy needs to be shaped and improved over time.  That is where ‘tenanting mix orchestration’ is a useful skill to learn and to feed into the property investment strategy.

The suggestion here is that the tenant mix can be shaped and improved.  That is certainly the case in retail property performance.  That is your job.  The landlord will benefit greatly over time by a well-considered and controlled tenant mix.

Every lease and every tenant in occupancy should be looked at in balance with the surrounding tenants, the shopper clusters, and the customer profiles.  The terms and conditions of each individual lease should be negotiated to standards that match the investment targets of the landlord.

Correct Tenant Placement

Here are some ideas to help you study and orchestrate the correct retail tenant mix and property improvement plan for your landlords:

1. Anchor tenants – You have to start your assessment around the stability and business activities of the anchor tenants. Look at the lease conditions that apply to each and every anchor tenant in the property.  How long are they in occupancy?  What are the terms and conditions that apply to their occupancy?  How can they integrate their business activities into the success of the overall property?
2. Customer profile – You can’t move your property to another location. On that basis your customer demographic will be specific to certain incomes, employment, and family profiles.  Understand your customer base and how those customers like to shop locally.  You may need to undertake a marketing study through the local area to get the most recent and up to date information about customer activity and or future needs.  When you understand the customer, you can set the strategies in place for the ideal tenant mix and property profile.  You may also be pulling in the customers from outside of the area through tourism and transient people.
3. Property design – Every property will have factors are designed to understand and integrate into the tenancy plan. Entrance points, common areas, congregation points, and transport drop off points all influence foot traffic and potential retail sales.  The tenancy mix should be designed for customer interaction and sales improvement.  That base strategy requires you to put the right tenants in the right locations.  You will have a mixture of small and large tenancies to consider.  You will also have tenancy locations requiring special consideration such as food retailing, fashion retailing, entertainment, and services.  You can get plenty of ideas by looking at other comparable properties locally or regionally.

From these three simple concepts, you can set in motion a comprehensive tenancy mix plan and retail sales strategy.  Understand the property, the tenants, and the customers.  Balance at equation so that the landlord can optimise rental returns and minimise vacancies.  That is what tenancy mix orchestration is all about.

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