As a commercial real estate professional, you know how vital it is to find the right tenant mix. You also know it can be difficult to achieve a healthy combination of retail, office and service tenants with growing businesses. As you consider how to fill the empty spaces in your project or property, ask yourself: What kind of tenants will provide the biggest lift for the entire development?
Fast-growing industries may be a key addition to your mix. Education-focused child care franchises are part of a $48 billion industry, which continues to grow for two main reasons:
- The majority of the millennial generation, made up of 73 million people, is just reaching peak family formation age. At the same time, more American women are choosing to have children. This means demand for child care only stands to increase in the coming years. And, these parents are recognizing the importance of early education, which means they are actively seeking providers that offer more than just child care.
- This industry is tech-proof. There will not be a tech company or automated service to replace your trusted child care provider. From a commercial real estate perspective, tenants being in a tech-proof industry will help keep demand for commercial space strong nationwide.
In a May 2017 blog post, I talked about the type of tenants who will thrive in the current retail environment — in my opinion, service providers like Primrose Schools will become a steady presence in mixed-use and retail developments. Here’s why:
- Continuous need: Think about child care centers, gyms and barber shops. They’re not seasonal; people don’t only need haircuts in the summer or child care in the fall. Services continually attract customers, meaning there is no off season.
- Constant demand: Service providers draw traffic to retail properties on a regular basis—often daily, in the case of businesses like Primrose. Think of the value you can provide to your tenants by guaranteeing consistent customer traffic in the same property or neighborhood.
- Resiliency: The growth of e-commerce and other economic shifts affect needs-based service providers far less than consumer goods providers. Including these providers in your tenant mix provides a level of stability that may not be as easily achieved with traditional retail.
With a Primrose school in your mix, active, involved parents and caretakers will be visiting your property twice a day. That’s 10 times per week when middle- and upper-income customers will frequent your location. You can see how an early education and child care provider produces an economic halo effect for its neighborhood.
Updating or creating a leasing plan? With the high demand for quality early education and care and the stability of the industry, adding Primrose to your tenant wish-list is a smart move. And, since we’re looking to add about 125 more schools to key U.S. markets by 2020, we’d be happy to have a conversation about how we can work together to meet your goals — and ours.
Similar Blog Posts:
Think Outside the Box When Expanding Into an Urban Market
Virtually Tour Primrose School Real Estate Models
The Economic Halo Effect of a Primrose School