Retail leasing collaborations bear little fruit

March 15th, 2010

Retail brokers are keeping their friends close — and some are keeping their enemies closer, collaborating with competitors for shared slices of a shrinking tenant base.

Whether these partnerships forged by hard times, like X Team International, a retail real estate brokerage alliance made up of small and mid-sized boutique firms, represented in South Florida partner by the Fort Lauderdale-based Rotella Group, will succeed in preserving business remains unclear. But the fact these arrangements exist reflects the profound shift in an industry that’s still getting squeezed.

Even in the competitive retail leasing industry, it’s now seen as a smart move to work with competitors rather than throwing them under the bus to land deals, because those opportunities are fewer and further between.

The X Team venture, for example, leverages Rotella and other brokerages’ strength to retain retail clients in a roster that includes Home Depot, Dollar Tree and Quiznos.

“By forming an alliance of retail brokerages, we know what’s happening from one end of the country to another,” said Bill Rotella, president of the Rotella Group. “If I have relationships in Florida that can help X Team members on the West Coast, I make an introduction. This helps us compete against the larger brokerages.”

Read the rest of my story on The Real Deal.

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