Business parks push to attract, retain tenants

By Kalle Eko, correspondent

For local businesses interested in retail or office space, Jody Braverman of Southgate Development Services in Iowa City has a direct message.

“At this point, if someone wanted a lease space, we'd say come on down and let's plan something,” he said.

For Braverman, the challenge facing park managers remains, as always, to attract and retain tenants.

According to Robert Stiles of Skogman Commercial Real Estate Group, there exist a flexible variety of leases depending on the needs of the tenant.

“Every deal is just a hair different,” said Stiles. “It just all depends on the business owner and what they want to do. It's figured out on a dollar amount per square foot.”

With the current economic climate, Braverman says that tenants are particularly cautious about leasing agreements. Particularly in the Cedar Rapids and Coralville areas, at the three-year anniversary of the 2008 floods, he notes that tenants are meticulously considering leasing terms.

“People seem like they're a lot smarter,” Braverman said.

“They're more concerned than the flash of price. It's more about how it's going to relate to their long-term needs.”

Tenants are thoroughly taking a look at more than just the site, he added.

“They want to know how much exposure they have to higher volumes to traffic,” he said by way of example. “This is with respect to proximity to the highway and what the cost of occupancy is going to be.”

From the perspective of Braverman and George Lake of Marion Economic Development Corp. in Marion, the best approach is to get more buzz on their properties. The method to doing so is by delivering heavy doses of advertising in collaboration with third-party brokers.

Braverman has hired a new marketing and business development manager, and Lake has focused Marion Economic Development on online marketing with developers and realtors.

“I represent all available properties in the city of Marion,” Lake said. “You can build the greatest facility in the world, but if nobody knows about it, it has no value.”

Existing industry and businesses account for a large percentage of job growth, he noted. As a result, the company's objective has been to make it “not only attractive for businesses to come to the region, but encouraging for people to stay.”

Developers have been reluctant to build properties in the area, Lake said, but they are showing flexibility and innovation in modifying properties to adjust to changing business demands. He cited the wind industry and its need to ship develop parts across the Midwest.

“There haven't been many companies that have pulled the trigger and made the decision to build,” Lake said.

“But the Marion Enterprise Center was designed to accommodate the long trucks associated with the wind industry that flow into our park.”