Retail Investing Strategy & Why Be Optimistic About Retail

Today we interview Adam Carswell, a Director with Concordia Realty and a Business Development Manager with Asym Capital. He focuses on retail, mobile home parks and self storage. 

You can read the full interview here:  https://montecarlorei.com/retail-investing-strategy-why-be-optimistic-about-retail/

What is your business model? Why do you guys invest in the properties that you invest in? What is your strategy?

My business partners at each firm go about things in different ways. Starting with Asym Capital, Hunter Thompson (the host of the Cashflow Connections Real Estate Podcast) focuses more on the syndication side of things, we look to partner with experienced operators, and as you can see with our track record, we really take our due diligence with operators and sponsors seriously. The level of due diligence that we do, not only on the asset or the deal that we're going into, but on our sponsor at underwriting is literally what I would call next level. And that's one thing that I've been fortunate to be in an environment like that, with someone who is this diligent.

Transitioning to Concordia Realty and Michael flight, we are retail focused, shopping center focused, and we look for opportunities to add value to shopping centers anywhere across the US. We normally will stay away from primary markets, but we do like secondary and tertiary markets. We like for our shopping centers to have a grocery store as an anchor, and at least one, and sometimes two discount stores in the plaza as well. So that could be a Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, Dollar General, etc. Drugstores are always good too: CVS, Walgreens. If we see a shopping center that fits that mold and is less than a hundred dollars per square foot, we will take a closer look at it, put it through our financial model, make assumptions and see if it will be a good fit for us and our investors. 

Can you share with us why are you optimistic about retail nowadays?

The first reason is that Amazon invested $13.7 billion into brick and mortar. That's a lot of money! And a company like Amazon has a lot of data that they have access to, and the amount of information that they have access to is also next level. There are very few people that can make a move like that. Sears is also doing a few things in retail.

The second reason is when you look at life in general, and you look at trends, and you look at things that people gravitate towards, retail has had its moment of super success and it's had its moments of no success. Kind of like what we're going through right now, but it's all cyclical. Retail has been around since the Roman Agora. It just evolves and takes a new shape and a new form. You had the general store in the 1900's, and then you had Sears catalog, which killed that general store. But then Sears did brick and mortar after the catalog with all their department stores. Amazon is like the new catalog that came out and kind of killed the brick and mortar movement. But again, it's, it's just very cyclical.

Right now is the perfect time to start at least researching and learning as much as you can about retail real estate because it is going to make a comeback nationally, and it's not going anywhere. It's just going to evolve.



Contact Adam Carswell here:

carswell.io

[email protected] 

iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dream-chasers/id1441685534

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0fqzz3iJS2uARrz4N6dlmN?si=1Yjisi-JSRK_1vRyU34JWA

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Support this podcast:

Today we interview Adam Carswell, a Director with Concordia Realty and a Business Development Manager with Asym Capital. He focuses on retail, mobile home parks and self storage. 

You can read the full interview here:  https://montecarlorei.com/retail-investing-strategy-why-be-optimistic-about-retail/

What is your business model? Why do you guys invest in the properties that you invest in? What is your strategy?

My business partners at each firm go about things in different ways. Starting with Asym Capital, Hunter Thompson (the host of the Cashflow Connections Real Estate Podcast) focuses more on the syndication side of things, we look to partner with experienced operators, and as you can see with our track record, we really take our due diligence with operators and sponsors seriously. The level of due diligence that we do, not only on the asset or the deal that we're going into, but on our sponsor at underwriting is literally what I would call next level. And that's one thing that I've been fortunate to be in an environment like that, with someone who is this diligent.

Transitioning to Concordia Realty and Michael flight, we are retail focused, shopping center focused, and we look for opportunities to add value to shopping centers anywhere across the US. We normally will stay away from primary markets, but we do like secondary and tertiary markets. We like for our shopping centers to have a grocery store as an anchor, and at least one, and sometimes two discount stores in the plaza as well. So that could be a Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, Dollar General, etc. Drugstores are always good too: CVS, Walgreens. If we see a shopping center that fits that mold and is less than a hundred dollars per square foot, we will take a closer look at it, put it through our financial model, make assumptions and see if it will be a good fit for us and our investors. 

Can you share with us why are you optimistic about retail nowadays?

The first reason is that Amazon invested $13.7 billion into brick and mortar. That's a lot of money! And a company like Amazon has a lot of data that they have access to, and the amount of information that they have access to is also next level. There are very few people that can make a move like that. Sears is also doing a few things in retail.

The second reason is when you look at life in general, and you look at trends, and you look at things that people gravitate towards, retail has had its moment of super success and it's had its moments of no success. Kind of like what we're going through right now, but it's all cyclical. Retail has been around since the Roman Agora. It just evolves and takes a new shape and a new form. You had the general store in the 1900's, and then you had Sears catalog, which killed that general store. But then Sears did brick and mortar after the catalog with all their department stores. Amazon is like the new catalog that came out and kind of killed the brick and mortar movement. But again, it's, it's just very cyclical.

Right now is the perfect time to start at least researching and learning as much as you can about retail real estate because it is going to make a comeback nationally, and it's not going anywhere. It's just going to evolve.



Contact Adam Carswell here:

carswell.io

[email protected] 

iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dream-chasers/id1441685534

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0fqzz3iJS2uARrz4N6dlmN?si=1Yjisi-JSRK_1vRyU34JWA

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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/best-commercial-retail-real-estate-investing-advice-ever/support