Growing With The Market
Retail Specialists is growing by helping its clients work smarter.
Randall Shearin

Retail Specialists has grown into its business within the Gulf South market. The three original principals of the Birmingham, Alabama-based company all started out in retail leasing working for full-service firms in the Birmingham area. As they gained experience, and valued market knowledge, they realized that there was an opportunity for a firm concentrated solely on retail in the Gulf States region. The result was Retail Specialists, Inc.

“We felt the need to separate from the full-service firms and create a specialty boutique real estate company, focused only on retail,” says Robert Jolly, president of Retail Specialists.

Today, the company is primarily a third-party tenant representation and project leasing firm. The company has 14 employees in Birmingham and three producers in its New Orleans office.

Retail Specialists handles leasing for Dothan Pavilion in Dothan, Alabama. The center is anchored by Best Buy, Target, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Barnes & Noble and a Carmike Cinema.

Retail Specialists started with five employees who concentrated solely on tenant rep work. The company later evolved into a third-party leasing firm, which is its core business today. The company leases and/or manages more than 2.5 million square feet in the Southeast, primarily in Alabama, the Florida panhandle, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The properties the company manages and leases range from 10,000 square feet to 400,000 square feet. The company represents retailers like Winn-Dixie, Dunkin Donuts, Verizon Wireless, Simply Fashions, Bojangles Chicken, Marcos Pizza, Great Clips, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Massage Envy, PJ’s Coffee and Buffalo Wild Wings, representing the chains in their expansions in various markets in the Gulf South region.

John Moss and Joe Mann, the two New Orleans managing partners, came to work with Retail Specialists through Mann. Formerly director of real estate for Quizno’s Corporation, Mann executed many leases with Retail Specialists, who served as his broker for Alabama, Mississippi and the Florida panhandle. In early 2009, he formed a partnership with Retail Specialists and Moss — who had been Quizno’s broker for Louisiana — to open the New Orleans office for the company.

“Most of our activity now is in the Gulf South region,” says Jolly. “The rebuilding of New Orleans has created significant tenant activity in the area, especially along the Interstate 12 and I-10 corridors.”

Retail Specialists is handling the retail leasing for Lane Parke, a mixed-use development planned in the affluent Mountain Brook neighborhood of

Along the I-12 corridor, the company has picked up a large leasing assignment, located at Interstate 12 and Highway 21 in Covington, Louisiana. Retail Specialists is working on the leasing of a community center anchored by a 50,000-square-foot Winn-Dixie, the first to be developed since the grocery retailer emerged from bankruptcy. The center, called Marketplace 21, has an additional 100,000 square feet scheduled to come on line in the next 12 to 18 months. The Winn-Dixie is scheduled to open early 2010.

In Baton Rouge, the company is leasing a new project near the campus of Louisiana State University.

In Birmingham, the company continues to concentrate on leasing the retail for Lane Parke, a $200 million development in affluent Mountain Brook for local development firm Evson, Inc. The mixed-use project is set to include 210,000 square feet of retail space, 45,000 square feet of office space, multifamily units and a 75-100 room hotel.

“We’re getting a lot of interest in our projects from mom-and-pop retailers,” says Mann. “We’re also getting a lot of regional and national tenants who are considering the Gulf South for expansion. In today’s climate, it is a little more challenging, but we are seeing a pick up of activity over the last 6 months.”

Retail Specialists has been working carefully with its clients during the downturn to assist them with any opportunity. As larger clients downsized, many outsourced leasing and management of centers to Retail Specialists. A number of its retailer clients also let go leasing staffs and turned more decision making over to tenant rep firms like Retail Specialists.

“In some ways, I am doing what I’ve always done [as a retailer], but not from an employee standpoint,” says Mann. “We are really trying to position ourselves so that we can better assist our clients, both retailers and landlords, with their specific challenges in today’s markets, and help them achieve the highest level of success in their business.”

Retail Specialists is leasing Lee Branch Shopping Center in Birmingham, Alabama.

The company’s two core businesses remain the leasing of smaller properties and tenant representation in all markets of the Gulf South. It has listings that include everything from a small restaurant in Montgomery, Alabama, to regional shopping centers in major markets. On the tenant rep side, it is busy taking over duties from retailers who still want to expand with leaner staffs.

“When it comes to tenant rep, we want to make the retailer’s job as easy as possible and provide the absolute best service that we can,” says Mann. “Our business is a referral business. Our retailer clients will take that experience with them, no matter where they go next.”

Retail Specialists is pursuing retailer and developer outsourcing as a major growth strategy for its future. It is also expanding its offices in Birmingham and New Orleans. The company also has an affiliate office in Nashville, another possible growth market.

©2010 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.