Where We Buy: Retail Real Estate with James Cook Where We Buy

How can retailers most efficiently get goods to consumers and retailers in dense cities? Leslie Lanne is a Managing Director at Jones Lang LaSalle, specializing in institutional Landlord and Tenant representation in the Northeast. She talks about changing delivery models in the urban core and building last-mile facilities. James Cook is the director of retail research in the Americas for JLL. 

Mys Tyler is a social media fashion app where the influencers you follow are selected to match your body measurements. The app includes shoppable posts. Buyers can make purchases already knowing how an item fits on a woman with similar measurements. Mys Tyler has created partnerships with global brands like Saks, ASOS and Banana Republic. CEO and founder Sarah Neill talks about the process of launching the app. She also explains how the app can be integrated with bricks-and-mortar shopping centers.

Stephen McDonald runs global development for Pizza Hut International. The brand's engine for global growth is its Fast Casual DelCo (FCD) store, which has already seen 1,000 openings since 2017. McDonald talks about the chain's global growth plans and the impact of the pandemic on its business.

David Gottlieb, Managing Director, Americas at Trax, explains how robots, shelf cameras, machine learning and the gig economy are impacting the supermarket. James Cook is the director of retail research in the Americas for JLL. 

Retailers are demanding more industrial real estate to store and ship online orders. Can we turn empty retail buildings into industrial ones to meet that demand? James joined a panel of experts to dig into the weeds. Kris Bjorson has spent 27 years working with industrial occupiers; Seth Geldzahler spent most of his career overseeing real estate for a major retailer and lawyer David Rabinowitz is a partner with Goulston & Storrs and works in retail and industrial development.

Bar Louie CEO, Tom Fricke joined the company to lead a turnaround strategy with no idea that the national chain of gastrobars would be exiting bankruptcy in the middle of a pandemic. But Fricke explains that there was a silver lining and in some ways the transformation plan was actually accelerated by the pandemic. SVP Food & Beverage, Steve Madonna explains the thinking that went into creating the menus of two new virtual delivery brands.