Is your Tenant Critieria Outdated?

Now that development has slowed down in the retail sector, developers are looking at their portfolio and hopefully giving some of the operational centers some much needed attention. The newer developments of the portfolio have probably had their Tenant Criteria Manuals revised. It's most likely customized to show that center as a unique property and used as a marketing tool as much as a technical manual. Hopefully they turned out to be a really effective tools for the TC department to quickly get the correct information to tenants. But what about your other properties? I am always amazed when I redo a criteria manual that it hasn't been updated in decades! Some of them were typed on typewriters with an old Landlord's name whited out (remember that) or still popping up in the text. There are usually an unacceptable amount of redundancies and outdated information. For each mistake, it takes someone in your organization at some level to catch and correct. So why not get it right the first time. This is the face of the company to your clients, your tenants, those whom you are about to expect to perform.

I think some TC departments struggle with the uniform vs. customized approach. I don't think it's an either/or argument. In the uniform approach the manuals are mostly the same, same graphics, but customized for each center. There is an economy of scale factor to this that makes it really smart for most of the portfolio. My previous post talks about the benefit of customization. I think now is a good time to get those manuals revised and posted in digital format for the tenant to download. I think it's also good practice to correct the manual on a regular basis, adding information as needed.