CCIM Education
Retail Education
CCIM courses hit the mark for shopping center students.
Part of the strategy for
promoting CCIM Institute’s education program to a wider audience is partnering
with other established commercial real estate professional development
programs. For the past several years, CCIM has sponsored sessions at the University
of Shopping Centers, hosted by the International Council of Shopping Centers on
the campus of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in
Philadelphia. This year, nearly 500 retail specialists took part in the
three-day event that featured 57 classes at all levels, from executive to
entry-level professionals. The program’s aim — to offer practical information
that can be used immediately in business — dovetails with CCIM’s own focus on
accessible knowledge.
As part of the
Advanced/Finance and Financial Analysis curriculum, CCIM Institute hosted four
sessions, two each presented by CCIM instructors H. Blaine Strickland, CCIM,
president of HBS Resources, Inc., of Orlando, Fla., and Walter S. Clements,
CCIM, president of Clements Realty Advisors in Glenview, Ill.
Strickland presented two
sessions: comparing leases for different spaces and measuring a user’s cost of
occupancy, both drawn from concepts presented in CCIM’s CI 103 course.
Strickland’s students included executives from several well-known retailers, as
well as retail real estate investment trusts and development companies. He was
also struck by the classes’ diversity. “About one-third of students attending
USC were international, and from quite a distance.” His classes included students
from Russia, Colombia, Romania, and U.A.E.
Clements tackled trade
area analysis based on CI 102 concepts and win-win negotiations. He shared
basic concepts of feasibility analysis and a case study for a retail center he
developed in a suburban Kansas City location. He incorporated STDB data, which
provides CCIM members with access to ESRI data in addition to several other
valuable tools.
“The CCIM concepts were
spot on for what the attendees needed to know — how to analyze demographic and
psychographic data from a user’s perspective to speak directly to the needs of
the potential tenant,” Clements says. “Many of the participants were amazed at
the incredible value of being a CCIM and having access to this data.” He also
illustrated how to slice and dice the data “to help a retailer decide if a
particular location is optimal for their unique product or service.”
The subject of successful
negotiations cuts a broad swath across day-to-day activities for retail
tenants, landlords, and developers, Clements notes. “The interest-based
approach is extremely helpful in any negotiation experience.” It also brought
some interesting reactions from students, especially those from other cultures.
“The students were from nine different countries. The negotiations concepts of
high integrity and expending your energy to satisfy everyone’s needs through an
interest-based model were truly enlightening for most of them.”
ICSC’s international
student body is not surprising, given that most retail companies are focusing
expansion and development efforts globally. The top 250 retailers worldwide
derived almost 25 percent of their 2012 profits from cross-border operations,
according to Deloitte’s “Global Powers of Retailing 2014” report. Emerging
economies show the most retail promise: Latin America’s retail revenue growth
in 2012 was the world’s highest at 14.7 percent, with Africa/Middle East next
at 13.5 percent. In contrast, U.S. retail revenue growth was 4.3 percent for
2012.
The globalization of
retail real estate also presents a growth opportunity for the CCIM education
program as well. Strickland says that only 20 percent of his students knew
about the CCIM program. “They were generally not familiar with the requirements
and had not been previously exposed to the information that I shared,” he says.
Clements’ experience was
similar and he saw a great deal of interest from the students. “They were very
serious about learning about the CCIM program and the content.”
The enthusiasm of the
students was “inspirational,” Clements adds. “One can always tell if the
audience appreciated the information and delivery by the number of people in
line after the presentation requesting copies of my slides. Even though we
provided written outlines of the materials, they still had a thirst for
more.”
In addition to Strickland
and Clements, three other CCIMs led courses: Charlotte Strain, CCIM, senior
vice president of asset management for The Rappaport Cos., in McLean, Va.;
Ralph Conti, CCIM, principal of Ra Co Real Estate Advisors in Atlanta, and John
M. Crossman, CCIM, president of the Crossman & Co. in Orlando, Fla.
In October, ICSC is
partnering with the Lusk Center of Real Estate at the University of Southern
California to present a West Coast University of Shopping Centers program.