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What the CFO Needs to Know: Real Estate
▲ Understand the assets covered by your leases: Taken together, leases are more than just one of a chain’s largest costs — they are the largest fixed expense, and they are fixed for the long term. As a rule, individual leases average seven to 10 years.
“Understanding that is critical,” said Michael P. Glimcher, chairman and CEO, Glimcher Realty Trust, Columbus, Ohio. -
What the CFO Needs to Know: Construction
▲Construction and construction costs are not an exact science: Information derived from data may be predicable; people are not.
▲ The process takes time: Construction encompasses more that just the time it takes to physically build a store. It also involves the lease-negotiating phase, drawing phases, permit phase and bidding phase.
▲ Smaller spaces don’t always translate into big cost reductions: It’s often assumed that as store square footage gets smaller, the overall costs go down.