The present invention generally pertains to methods for securing commercial lease tenants—primarily in the retail store category—by landlords seeking to choose among potential tenants those tenants and businesses that are most likely to succeed in the commercial space available.
Previously, commercial tenants of retail store spaces scrutinized various objective and subjective criteria in determining whether a proposed tenant was a “good fit.” Those criteria usually included the proposed lessee's financial plan, financial wherewithal, credit history, and previous success in the retail marketplace. Also considered was whether the proposed lessee's product line or services to be provided at the location were suitable for the location. These methods often fell short however as they rely ultimately on a subjective analysis of the information provided. What is needed therefore is a system and method for screening and selecting the best commercial tenant for a retail space.
A search of the prior art did not disclose any patents that possess the novelty of the instant invention, however the following U.S. patent is considered related: U.S. Pat. No. 8,706,604 to Topitzer discloses a method for hedging risks of tenant default on a lease agreement by offering the landlord a “put” option based on the risk of such default. While this method does involve an analysis of the potential tenant's success and provides a hedge against failure of a tenant to pay, it does not provide the landlord with an active and “live” comparison between potential tenants and their business activities in the landlord's location. What is needed therefore is a method and system whereby a landlord can screen potential tenants by providing potential tenants an opportunity, via a series of competitions with other potential tenants, to demonstrate their business's worthiness as a retail tenant in the landlord's retail location.
The present invention is designed to assist commercial property owners who have retail space for lease to select the best tenants for their property. The method and system described herein is in the form generally of a contest among entrepreneurs (or teams of entrepreneurs) who wish to establish a retail location for their product or service. Each group will begin with a pitch to the landlord detailing the group's reason for the choosing the landlord's location, the product and service to be offered and the marketing plan to be employed. The landlord will then select a number of potential tenants from these groups. The landlord will then allow each potential tenant a set period of time to prepare the retail location for an opening sales weekend. During this time, the potential tenants will also prepare a marketing and promotion campaign geared to attracting customers to their opening sales weekend at the location. During this process, the landlord will observe and monitor the activities of each of the potential tenants with an eye to evaluating each prospective tenant's business acumen and the appropriateness of each prospective tenant's marketing plans with the landlord's retail location.
When preparations are complete, each prospective tenant will conduct an opening sales weekend whereby the prospective tenant will set up their retail store at the landlord's location and open for business for a short period of time. When each prospective tenant has completed its opening sales weekend, the landlord will then tally the sales results for each prospective tenant.
Thereafter, the landlord will analyze the data collected. This will include the landlord's assessment of the prospective tenant's pitch session, the landlord's assessment of each prospective tenant's product or service, its marketing and promotion campaign and the results of the opening sales weekend. Based on this assessment of data, the landlord can make an effective choice regarding the best tenant for the location.
The method and system described herein is in the form of a contest among potential tenants of a retail location whereby the contest presents various challenges to each prospective tenant surrounding the preparation of a retail store location, marketing of the prospective tenant's product or service and the promotion of a opening sales weekend for the sales of the prospective tenant's product or service to the consuming public. Referring to
After the landlord has selected a group of prospective tenants, now referred to as “contestants”, the landlord will task each contestant with preparing the retail location to serve as each contestant's storefront. This is shown as Step 3 in
Referring again to
Referring again to
The winning team will be selected by the landlord as shown in Step 6 of
The winning contestant is permitted to lease the premises, as shown in Step 7 of
Alternatively, the winning contestant and landlord could form a partnership with the landlord whereby the landlord contributes the premises, or a discounted lease on the premises, or some other contribution to the retail operation.
It is understood that the system and method described above may be variously implemented and variously used depending upon specific applications. Accordingly, the scope hereof shall not be referenced to the disclosed embodiments, but on the contrary, shall be determined in accordance with the general definitions assigned to the terms herein.
This Application claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of Provisional Application No. 62/537,666, filed Jul. 27, 2017. The provisional application is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62537666 | Jul 2017 | US |