“Why did that new restaurant close so quickly?” “Why are restaurant rents so high?” “Why can’t we get a Krispy Kreme?”
These are just some of the questions local diners have when it comes to the ever-changing restaurant scene in and around Northern Virginia. To try to get some answers, Ashburn Magazine turned to Craig Cheney, one of the most experienced commercial real estate brokers in the region.
Cheney, a principal with the real estate company KLNB, has been in the industry for 25 years. He’s worked with scores of restaurants over the years – small mom-and-pops to big national chains.
Ashburn Magazine posed its most puzzling questions to Cheney. Here are some of his responses.
Q: What is the main goal of a landlord when they are looking to lease a restaurant space?
“Landlords prioritize goals and objectives differently depending on a variety of factors. Most of the time, landlords want to get the best economic deal possible from the best credit tenant that has the most cachet and drives the most traffic to their center.”
Q: That sounds like they are looking for a unicorn to some degree.
“It is very difficult to achieve all those objectives, so each landlord will prioritize which of those objectives (economics, credit, cachet, traffic) is most important to achieve their goals. For instance, if a landlord is going to be selling their shopping center in the near future, then high rent and good credit will likely be a higher priority. If they are a long-term holder of the real estate, they may prioritize cachet and traffic over getting the highest rent possible. In most cases, the credit quality of the tenant is at the top of the priority list.”
To read the rest of the interview with Cheney – including mistakes some new restaurants make, why it takes so long for some restaurants to open, and why the Loudoun County area can’t seem to get the aforementioned Krispy Kreme – click here and head over to the Ashburn Magazine website.