Here's how to win free retail space in Richmond Heights
by STEPH KUKULJAN for the St. Louis Business Journal | January 29th, 2021
The owner of The Boulevard, a mixed-use retail center in Richmond Heights, is hosting a competition for three months of free rent for a small business.
Edwards Realty Co., the owner and operator of The Boulevard, will offer three months of free rent, marketing and social media support, as well as $2,000 to decorate space, to one local company to lease a 1,380-square-foot brick-and-mortar storefront at The Boulevard in Richmond Heights, at Interstate 64 and Brentwood Boulevard.
A panel of judges — Gilberto Pinela, communications manager at Cortex; Erin Joy, founder of Black Dress Circle; Leslie Gill, president of Rung for Women; Brian Hall, chief marketing officer at Explore St. Louis; and Whitney Cole, owner of Paint Nail Bar at The Boulevard — will review nominations and help select the winner, according to a release.
Finalists will be announced in March, and the community will be able to participate in the selection of the winner by casting an online vote. The winner will be announced March 30, and the new tenant will open their storefront business in May, officials said.
Applications are due Feb. 19.
"Small business has been resilient and flexible in having to adapt to an ever changing environment. We didn’t see that" with national tenants, said Ramzi Hassan, president of Edwards Realty Co. "We want to foster that creative energy to give small businesses an outlet they otherwise wound’t have."
Edwards Realty Co. has already tried this program, called Pop Local, at its retail center in Burr Ridge, Illinois. That competition received about 45 applications, and Hassan said his company wanted to replicate that "enthusiasm and energy" at its other properties.
A similar program occurred in Hazelwood. New York-based commercial real estate firm SomeraRoad Inc. partnered with the city of Hazelwood earlier this year to offer startup capital and free rent to small businesses and entrepreneurs at SomeraRoad's Village Square retail center.
"In general, leasing has been turned on its head. We have to be more creative in finding these types of tenants (because) the traditional process doesn’t work anymore," Hassan said.
Mid-St. Louis County reported a 2.4% vacancy rate and average lease rate of $20.57 per square foot in the third quarter of 2020, flat year over year from 2019, according to the latest data from Newmark Zimmer. Nationwide, retail vacancy in the third quarter stayed flat year over year at 6.6%, according to CBRE research.
Original article: St. Louis Business Journal