Optimizing Shopping Center Portfolios

Optimizing retail store portfolios and optimizing shopping center portfolios seem like two different things. In fact, the two tasks have similarities.

“To retailers, optimization is getting store deployment across the marketplace right,” explained Mike Makinen, COO with MPI, Mall Properties Inc., New York City. “We have a similar strategy. We have a mix of retailers within our shopping center portfolio, and we try to optimize the assortment of retailers, restaurants and service tenants within each center.”

Achieving that requires a shopping center owner to know where its retailer customers want to locate. “The goal is investing in properties in sync with their expansion plans,” Makinen said. “For instance, we operate Bayshore Town Center in Glendale, Wis., which covers Milwaukee’s North Shore market.

“Retailers interested in Milwaukee will want a store in the West, South and North. Our location in the North covers several affluent towns. It is the obvious choice for a Milwaukee expansion.”