When buying a home, the age-old adage is “location, location, location” – meaning that location in many cases dictates the demand and overall value of a property. Although this sentiment is usually used in the context of purchasing a single-family home, it also rings true when looking at the Skyline Retail REIT’s acquisition strategy. The Skyline Retail REIT is very intentional with the strategy behind its property purchases: seeking properties in cities with strong economies, while forging strong relationships with national brands that are easily recognized by most consumers. It specifically seeks central locations within these cities and communities, in order to have a strong presence and attractive location for conducting business. From an investment standpoint, The Retail REIT offers investors a unique opportunity to gain access to nationally anchored brands and tenants that facilitate consumers’ everyday needs, such as pharmaceuticals, groceries, and personal banking.
The Skyline Retail REIT looks for robust and central locations within communities, helping to create a centralized foothold in that area. “We can confidently say that we have some of the best real estate within our communities, so in the case of a tenant moving on from one of our properties, our location makes it easy to quickly attract and retain new tenants,” says Gord Driedger, President of the Skyline Retail REIT. “From a retail tenant’s point of view, our properties provide a stable place to conduct business. For consumers, these locations are centralized and convenient, so retailers are seeing the foot traffic they want.”
Gord and his team also work diligently to create and maintain strong industry relationships, both with local retail tenants as well as the many national name-brand tenants that comprise the REIT’s portfolio. “At one point, it came to our attention that one of our tenants, Party City, was seeking a larger space for its business at one of our properties,” says Driedger. “While we couldn’t offer them a larger space within that property at the time, we were able to negotiate with Structube to take over the area. This allowed the Skyline Retail REIT to minimize operational downtime, recapture potential revenue loss, and offer consumers an in-demand business within their community.”
Coupling sought-after centralized locations with proactive and healthy business relationships allows the Skyline Retail REIT to react and pivot easily if tenants relocate, or if market sentiment changes. Boasting a 97.6% committed occupancy rate,1 the Skyline Retail REIT has created a competitive advantage for itself through its focused management approach for tenants and investors alike. Striving to match great real estate locations with great management has fostered a growing portfolio of diverse, nationally-backed tenants that offer consumers easy access to their everyday needs.
The Skyline Retail REIT focuses on maintaining at least 70% of the overall portfolio as nationally backed, easily recognizable tenants such as the LCBO, GoodLife Fitness, Zehrs, Tim Hortons, Shoppers Drug Mart, etc. Comprised of 100% Canadian real estate within strong communities, the Retail REIT looks to focus on everyday consumer necessities. The Skyline Retail REIT is an open-ended real estate investment trust, available for both non-registered and registered holdings.
[1] As at September 1, 2019.