Real Estate Consultant Rachel Wein of WeinPlus Discusses How to do More with Less

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. --- Rachel Elias Wein, founder and principal of WeinPlus Real Estate Advisory Services in St. Petersburg, recently presented to retail property developers and real estate professionals at the 2012 ICSC North Florida Idea Exchange on how to do more with less in a recovering economy.

The formula works, Wein said, and can turn marginally profitable projects into income-generating super stars.

Her message: streamline the development process and focus on generating revenues.

“If 25 percent of your team’s time is spent reporting, processing, logging and routing work in progress, that reduces your ability to add value, costs you 25 percent of their salary plus overhead and makes them less likely to compete at a high level,” Wein said.

“If your focus on construction cost results in too much time dedicated to complex bidding procedures, you can substantially delay completion of a project,” Wein told the group.

The key is to measure and incentivize for the right results.

“You’ve got to measure savings from bidding against the rents you lose because of the delay brought on by the bidding period,” Wein said. “When you find that the cost overages you save are outweighed by the lost rent revenues, then you need to adjust or eliminate your bidding process,” she said.

Wein told the group that the new economy means property owners and landlords must play a partnering role with retail tenants.

“You’ve got to help them succeed if you want to succeed,” Wein emphasized.