New Retail Focus Helps Grubb & Ellis Move Forward
Focusing on retail is a priority for one of the nation’s top brokerage firms. The company plans to double its retail group over the next 5 years.
Randall Shearin

Michael Dee.

Grubb & Ellis has always had a strong presence in office and industrial real estate, and held an established retail practice. Over the last year, though, the company has made a larger push into retail. With the hiring of Michael Dee, who serves as senior vice president and national director of retail, in June 2005, the company has now dedicated resources to becoming a dominant force in retail.

Previous national retail directors at Grubb & Ellis had always been active brokers as well. With Dee, the company decided to take another approach.

“It was a difficult situation to have someone do both,” says Dee. “The position is now structured so that I don’t act as a producing broker, although this is how I started my commercial real estate career 20 years ago. My sole function is to build the retail practice.”

Chief among Dee’s responsibilities is recruiting new retail brokers for the firm. He also works on retention plans for the company’s top retail brokers. Dee is also working on enhancing the Grubb & Ellis brand in retail and the image that the company projects. Grubb & Ellis has been increasing its presence at all the ICSC functions it attends throughout 2006 and 2007. Dee, whose background is in brokerage and corporate retail — he worked for Blockbuster, Starbucks Coffee and Payless Shoe Source before arriving at Grubb & Ellis — also uses his contacts to generate new business for the company. In the 1990s, Dee also worked at Grubb & Ellis as a director in the company’s corporate services group, managing its national retail and non-retail tenant representation accounts.

With this new commitment to the retail sector, Grubb & Ellis has plans for a big return on its investment. The company plans to double the size of its retail group over the next 5 years.

“We want to become a significant force in retail brokerage services,” says Dee. 

Along those lines, Grubb & Ellis has been in a constant recruiting mode for retail brokers. It is hiring not only in Grubb & Ellis owned offices but also in the offices of the company’s affiliate companies. Specifically, the company is looking to grow its presence in the eastern half of the U.S. This includes markets like New York, Boston, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., the Carolinas, Atlanta and Florida.

“We are very strong in the Midwest and California, Arizona, New Mexico, Chicago, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Kansas City,” says Dee. “Our priority now is to grow the east coast presence.”

One of the company’s success stories has been the expansion of its market presence in Denver. The company has had an office there for years, but has not had retail brokers for a very long time. In 2006, the company recruited six retail brokers to join its Denver office. It is now incredibly active in the market and has veteran retail brokers native to the area who are making Grubb & Ellis a force in retail. Midtown Manhattan is another market where six retail brokers have joined in the last year to develop a practice. Seattle is another market where a strong presence has been established.

Over the last 18 months, the company has had an 18 percent increase in the number of its retail brokers. Currently, Grubb & Ellis and its affiliates have more than 250 retail brokers nationally.

Grubb & Ellis’s retail practice is about 60 percent retail tenant representation, and about 40 percent landlord representation. Each office has its specialty, so the concentration of the practice varies by market. Dee has been going on calls with local offices who are luring national business to show retailers what Grubb & Ellis can offer an expanding retailer on a national level. He, in essence, becomes an added resource to help the brokers get their deals done.

Grubb & Ellis has created a Retail Council that has representation from every office. A senior retail broker from every office and affiliate sits on the council. The council has monthly conference calls, segmented by region. The council discusses current clients’ needs and expansion plans, has guest speakers on particular issues and answers each other’s questions.

“The calls have become a great way to network internally and to communicate lots of good information,” says Dee.

Dee formed a retail executive committee in 2005. This committee has eight senior retail brokers across the country. Four of the committee members are from Grubb & Ellis owned offices and four are from affiliate offices. The committee acts as a resource for Dee as well as for the entire retail group for training, networking and technology. The committee members make themselves accessible to every Grubb & Ellis retail broker in the country.

Grubb & Ellis has introduced several new services for its retail clients that can aid them in their businesses. The first is its consulting services group, based in the corporate office in Chicago. This group can provide retailers and landlords consulting services. If Grubb & Ellis is working with a regional restaurant chain with 10 locations that wants to expand, the consulting services group can help them figure out who their customer is and then help them locate similar areas where expansion will make sense. The consulting services group is also working with a major city to help them take better advantage of all its real estate assets. It is analyzing all of the city’s retail and developing a plan that will make the maximum use of every facility, from office buildings to retail space.

Grubb & Ellis has always been known for its research capabilities. It has expanded its abilities to include trend reports that enable retailers to search and detect trends that may fit their customer profiles.

“A retailer can now locate a report by region, state or city, and get accurate information about trends within the retail industry at that location, on customers, retailers or developers and where they are headed and what they are doing,” says Dee. “The reports also detail the key growth areas for their particular business. That has become an effective tool for our clients.”

Mapping and demographic services is another area where Grubb & Ellis has continued to expand its capabilities. The company offers everything from aerial photographs to in-depth demographics and mapping for its clients.

Dee is quick to credit Grubb & Ellis’s CEO, Mark Rose, who joined the company in 2005, for the company’s growth in the retail sector.

“Mark has a keen awareness and appreciation for retail,” says Dee. “He wants to expand Grubb & Ellis by size and strength in every specialty.”

According to Dee, Grubb & Ellis has put the money behind its commitment to retail as well.

“Not only have they made a commitment by creating a national director of retail, but the company has backed it with marketing support,” he says.


©2007 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.