(Via Journal Record) Green: Who is the next big retailer coming to town?

Ever wondered how to get a national store to open a location in your area? What kind of magic takes place to make a trendy new store a reality? Turning a dream shopping experience into a brick-and-mortar location is a pretty lengthy process with a lot of moving parts. The easiest way to start the journey is to pack your bags and head west.

On May 21 Las Vegas Nevada will be flooded with people from all over the world for RECon, the world’s largest retail real estate convention. Representatives from retail chains, property management companies, commercial brokerages, and many more will be gathered to kick off this four-day annual event. This is the who’s who of retail all gathering under the bright lights of Las Vegas. On a global level this is the biggest meet and greet in retail, the best place to start that relationship and plant the seed to get the big store to come to your city.

Let’s pretend you are a commercial real estate broker from the growing Oklahoma City. You have worked hard getting exclusive representation contracts from several large shopping centers. You did your homework, you ran reports to show the traffic counts and the retail gaps and discovered the best fit for each center. Your goal for RECon is to meet with the best vendors for those spaces, the types of vendors who will thrive in your carefully chosen shopping centers, and of course you’re also hunting that big whale of retail. The store that has not ventured into your city yet and you want to be the one to lure them in and show them the demographics and why they would benefit from finally breaking into the Oklahoma City market.

Who is being wooed to come to Oklahoma City? Can you keep a secret? Well, so can everyone involved. The retail world can be very cloak and dagger about revealing information, especially when it comes to large national companies. Non-disclosure agreements are standard fare and for those working with highly prized retailers the ability to be discreet has a big payoff.

After the ink has dried on that highly sought after lease, all bets are off and a big buzz about who is coming to town will be the trendy thing to talk about. This is the process that got Oklahoma City a Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe’s and it will be very exciting to find out who will be coming to town after the dust has settled, the handshakes have been made and the lease has been signed. Until then the gag order is in place but keep your fingers crossed that the big retailer coming is the one you have been waiting for. Well, stay tuned, because hopefully this time what happens in Vegas will actually come to Oklahoma City.

Laura Green is a retail specialist with Coldwell Banker Commercial.

Read the original piece at journalrecord.com.