Besides maintaining operational excellence through best-in-class service and maximizing operating income through cost-effective management practices, tenant relations is also paramount in achieving a stabilized, leased-up commercial asset.

Property Name:                           Bel Villaggio I II & III
Property Location:                     Temecula
Property Description:                Retail, 116,663 Total Square Feet

Bel Villaggio is a three-star, retail community center, centrally-located in the South Riverside submarket of Temecula. Developed in three phases and sitting at 116,663 total square foot, this very walkable and transit-oriented property includes a tenant roster that appeals to the surrounding demographic. Meissner was contracted in early 2015 by then ownership to provide professional commercial property management services to this asset.

Client Requirements
Meissner worked with ownership to establish the financial goals and parameters of the property to maximize cash flow in both the short and long term, and identified the top three areas that required immediate attention – 1) high vacancy rate, 2) delinquencies, and 3) deferred maintenance.

Process
Upon takeover, Meissner immediately enacted a plan to resolve all three areas of concern. First, Meissner actively supported the leasing plan by working with ownership’s contracted brokerage team, Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, to reduce the then 50% vacancy rate by supplying property information and operating expertise, being available for meetings with prospective tenants, ensuring available spaces are in rent-ready condition, and assisting in new tenant move-ins. In addition to enacting a standard delinquency program, the delinquencies issue was further resolved through Meissner’s hands-on management style where focus is placed on improving tenant relations by communicating and meeting with each tenant site contact on a regular basis and responding proactively and promptly to questions and concerns to issues such as lease document interpretation, budget, and CAM reconciliation. Lastly, Meissner addressed the problem of deferred maintenance by enacting a landscape program that included trimming overgrown trees that inhibited visibility of the center, replacing landscaping with drought tolerant plants and installing a water-efficient sprinkler system to reduce water use, enacting a lighting retrofit program to upgrade all exterior lighting to help alleviate security issues, updating and repairing fire sprinklers to meet code requirements, repairing tired, exterior furniture to improve the appearance of the common areas, and enlisting strategically-placed security guards to ease the parking issue.

Result
As a result of Meissner Commercial Real Estate’s proactive property management approach, ownership’s investment objectives of improving the occupancy rate to 67% and maintaining a stabilized, operational asset were achieved.

Sources:
Meissner Commercial Real Estate Services