CREJ - Retail Properties Quarterly - May 2015
In the current real estate market, whether it’s the industrial, office or retail market, sometimes you have to get creative when it comes to space that your business will operate out of. That is the thinking behind the Denver office of G.J. Gardner Homes, a custom homebuilder, when it moved into a retail storefront along Tennyson Street in the Berkeley neighborhood. “It is unusual to have a retail design center storefront on such a walkable street like Tennyson,” said Doug Backman, managing director of DB Marketing. “At the same time it is an innovative real estate idea for this product, and also speaks to the popularity of custom homes.” G.J. Gardner is a franchise concept that began in Australia and landed in the U.S. in 2005. The company recruits local custom builders to work under the brand and provide tools and processes to help the franchisee be successful. G.J. Gardner has nine design centers across the Front Range, but the one in Berkeley is the first highly trafficked retail concept. “The storefront is an easy way for us to get our name out there and be seen, so people realize that this option exists,” said Dave Pagano, owner and builder of G.J. Gardner Denver. “We have a model home that we can walk to from this store to see a finished product, but then it is nice to come back here in a more professional setting to go through the contracts and processes.” G.J. Gardner Denver sells the product with standard finishes in it, and then the client can go to the retail store, which is a design center, and change whatever he wants. It is up to the client how much or little he customizes the home with tile, countertops, fixtures, paint color and more. The operation falls between a large production builder and small momand-pop operation, which is why the employees feel like having an 800-square-foot retail space works well for them. Pagano and his staff build homes throughout Denver County, but feel like the retail storefront will work only in select locations, and Berkeley is one of them. “Berkeley is unique because it fits our demographic for clientele, and in and around this neighborhood we are pretty recognizable,” said Jeff Veronie, new home consultant with G.J. Gardner Denver. “To be able to meet people in our retail store and interact with the community goes along well with what we are doing and our style of building.” One benefit of the retail storefront that Pagano and Veronie have seen repeatedly is how much time their clients save. “We try to have clients come in here and get everything done in two or three meetings,” said Pagano. Because customers can see everything from cabinets and tile, to plumbing and light fixtures in the store, it simplifies the process and saves time traveling to several different places. “The difficult part for other custom homebuilders or remodelers is not having everything right in front of you to be able to compare the cabinets to countertops or tiling to fixture options,” said Backman. Since this concept is new for both G.J. Gardner and customers, Pagano and Veronie are unsure how much daily, weekly or monthly foot traffic they will get, especially since it isn’t typical retail, but they say their experience so far has been positive. “Usually people don’t just wake up one day and get the idea that they want to build a custom home,” said Veronie. “But this is a great place to introduce them to it and get them to realize they can do pretty much anything. When they see the store and come in it plants the seed, and then when they see other houses go up in the neighborhood it starts making more sense.”