New Spectrum Realty Services, founded in 1987, provides comprehensive, personalized store leasing and consulting services to property owners with diverse portfolios and to retailers, large and small, from local merchants to national and international chains.
Benjamin Fox, a founding partner of New Spectrum, with more than 17 years experience in retail brokerage, said that a key to the company's success has been its ability to assemble professional brokers who specialize in all areas of the city.
As a result, Fox noted, with 22 brokers on staff, New Spectrum has consummated retail leasing transactions aggregating in excess of $2 billion.
"We never advertised, we never openly looked for people," said Fox, a member of the board of directors of the Brokerage Division of the Real Estate Board of New York. "We've been able to assemble a talented group of brokers in their own right, with terrific contacts and relationships. We've developed a lot of repeat business, and through the success of our individual brokers we have continued to grow and prosper."
According to Fox, New Spectrum, located at 551 Fifth Avenue, has satisfied the diverse needs of retailers and owners in virtually every neighborhood of the city, including Midtown Manhattan, the Village, the Upper East and West Sides and Soho. New Spectrum's client list, Fox said, includes The Gap, Hallmark, McDonalds, and Barnes & Nobles.
"I'm very optimistic about the next few years," said Fox, who has represented many major owners in Manhattan. "We're pleased, we've had a pretty good impact on the market."
Fox said that New York's retail market is healthy because owners are pushing to rent retail space in order to compensate for office rents that have been lost in recent years. He also pointed out that retailers have not been hurt by the credit crunch because they are self-sufficient, and, as a result, do not usually requird outside financing to expand.
New Spectrum, specializing in retailing store leasing, operates under the basic philosophy the each broker employed at the firm must have a well-rounded knowledge of retail space availabilities, real estate law, construction, lease negotiation, and, of course, retailing.
"A credit to us is that the people we hired were not haphazardly selected," said Stephen Asch, a founding partner of New Spectrum, who has forged closed relationships with many of the city's largest landlords and developers, as well as an array of major national tenants.
"We interviewed scores and scores of brokers. We wanted to run a wholesome company with integrity," Asch said. "We wanted to create a place where business practices could flourish. We wanted inter-office cooperation, without egos, without disruption, where trust is a big word."
At New Spectrum, every broker was extensive industry contacts that involve him or her with both large and small property owners, as well as merchants of every distinction, ranging from single location proprietors to national and international retailers and institutions, Asch said.
In representing an owner, New Spectrum is committed to searching for tenants who have the capability to succeed in distinct and varied retail environments. In addition to seeking tenants with proven track records, New Spectrum carefully considers a building's architecture, its use and function, and its surrounding neighborhood, with the owner's rent objective always of prime importance.
"With the construction of malls, a lot of retailers have been forced to look at urban areas," said Gary Alterman, a founding partner of New Spectrum with more than 14 years experience in retail brokerage. "A lot of national chains are coming in. We recently put a Channel in Manhattan."
According to Alterman, Manhattan's Flatiron District, as an example, has expanded into one of the city's most dynamic shopping communities, currently comprising not only Fifth Ave. between 14th and 23rd Streets, but also Broadway and Sixth Aves. between 14th and 23rd Streets. He also said that demand for prime retail space in Soho also currently exceeds supply, with retail once again thriving in the area, where rents are significantly higher than they were a year ago.
Alterman, an active member of the Retail Estate Board of New York Store Broker's Committee, explained that unlike the office market segment of the real estate industry, the retail market had not suffered from overbuilding.
Asch agreed, adding that the retail market does not go through the same cycles as office and residential markets, and, therefore, it is not dependent on one major industry, so if a couple firms go out of business, it does not hurt retailers as much
New Spectrum offers a comprehensive marketing plan for clients, which includes space planning, with logical divisions, electrical and HVAC distribution, storefront design and signage; development of rental plans and brochures; development of landlord and tenant construction specifications; recommendations of appropriate advertising programs; and development and coordination of leasing guidelines of include lease term, rent schedules, construction concessions, security requirements, assignment and sublet, and tax and operating escalations.
The New Spectrum Retail Rent Analysis, compiled from information contained in its data base of over 2,000 listings of retail stores available throughout Manhattan, revealed two years ago that retail leasing activity in Manhattan had increased dramatically compared to the year before.
The firm's data base of available stores for rent in September, 1993 showed that the total had decreased over the previous 12 months. According to the data, there were 2,134 stores available for lease in 1992, compared to 1,181 available in 1993.
Fox commented that he thought the trend was quite healthy and that he believed leasing activity will continue in this vein, with New Spectrum on the forefront of retail leasing activity in the years to come.