CREJ

November 2021 — Retail Properties Quarterly — Page 23 www.crej.com ...and much more! CAM Services is Proud to Offer the Following Quality Services Multiple Service Discounts Available Power Sweeping Parking Lot Sweeping Snow Removal Day Porter Services Tenant Finish/Improvements Interior/Exterior Building Maintenance Power Washing Power Scrubbing Fence Repair Stormwater & Erosion Control Signage Repair Curb & Sidewalk Repair Parking Blocks Construction Clean-up Water Damage Clean-up Property Security Temporary Fencing Barricades Rubber Removal Airport Services Event Services Silt Fence Fully Bonded Phone: 303.295.2424 • Fax: 303.295.2436 www.camcolorado.com 24 Hours/Day, 7 Days/Week State-of-the-art equipment, with GPS tracking for your convenience on both center and individual mer- chant performance. Our firm surveyed over 1,110 of its shopping center customers and found that 68% of them have higher cus- tomer service expectations than they did pre-pandemic. Additionally, 13% of them state that businesses that used to meet their needs at the height of the pandemic are no longer meet- ing them. Further, 36% of customers believe that customer service in gener- al is worse than it was pre-pandemic. While we expect these numbers to increase given the continued labor and inventory shortages, the feedback also points to an opportunity for many of our merchants to gain market share if they can excel during this time. Properties owned or managed by us benefit from data obtained via customer sentiment aggregation. By utilizing artificial intelligence to moni- tor reviews of shopping centers and businesses across multiple platforms, we are able to identify trends prior to obtaining sales reports or encountering service issues during property visits. Assisting businesses in responding and course-correcting before negative trends get out of hand helps mer- chants meet evolving customer expec- tations. Having data at hand and the ability to quickly analyze it proved essential during the recovery process. n Community engagement. In 2021, we have seen a resurgence of in-person events at our shopping centers – with some of the largest historic attendance on record for key events like a summer concert series and Halloween events. Being prepared for this accelerated attendance is important. Vendors are short staffed, and supplies are limited. Booking and ordering early is essential to welcoming back patrons to their favorite memory-making experiences. In many cases, expectations for events and activations also are higher as cus- tomers have missed events over the last year and are looking forward to their first tree lighting or first concert. The height of COVID-19-related restrictions, however, brought forth many creative ideas that will remain at our properties long after COVID-19 subsides. For example, during Easter 2020, when an in-person Easter egg hunt was not possible, Village at the Peaks in Longmont created a month- long Easter egg scavenger hunt. The hunt featured fabulous prizes and engaged a local artist to paint hid- den Easter eggs on a variety of sur- faces throughout the shopping center. Guests could spend an afternoon hunting or return over several days to find all of the eggs. Community art and inventive outdoor seating areas continued to become increasingly important, with new installations bringing patrons to centers on their own schedules when gathering en masse was difficult. Having the ability to reach customers in a variety of ways (text, email, social media, etc.) and leaning in to how a customer prefers to be reached is also a great takeaway from the pandemic. Many businesses faced significant challenges quickly reaching their cus- tomers to let them know of their open/ closed status or to promote modified services. Continuing to reach custom- ers where they want to get their infor- mation remains an essential part of marketing plans. Leveraging data and community engagement during our continued recovery continues to be vital to our collective success. s dmccoy@newmarkmerrill.com Continued from Page 1 Owner Insights cities traditionally have attracted the most investment, but 2021 has seen an uptick in investment in suburbs and smaller cities. Although the New York City metropolitan statistical area still tops the list as the larg- est MSA exposure in recently secu- ritized CMBS loans, smaller cities have climbed the list with Salt Lake City; Cincinnati; Austin, Texas; and Boise, Idaho, among the top 10 MSAs represented in CMBS deals by loan balance. Several trends, including a desire for more space during the pandemic, the rise in working from home and millennials reaching a homebuy- ing stage in life, have all increased the desirability for the suburbs. The retail market is following suit with a leasing and investment shift to suburban and urban infill loca- tions. Retail properties in the New York City metro back $365.4 million of 2021-securitized CMBS conduit loans, of which only $22.4 mil- lion is concentrated in Manhattan. Similarly, the two largest CMBS retail loans this year in the Denver metro area – Denver West Village Shopping Center and University Square Shop- ping Center – are both suburban shopping centers. Gateway cities are not going anywhere, but investment in smaller metro areas and suburbs may prove to be a lasting trend. s sarah.helwig@morningstar.com Helwig Continued from Page 6 NewMark Merrill Mountain States