At Progressive Real Estate Partners, the clients range from independent owners with one shopping center to institutional owners with large portfolios and sophisticated systems. Regardless of where you fall on that spectrum, planning for the next 12 to 24 months will ensure that your retail property is well positioned for success.
Here are nine key steps to help you plan and maximize the performance and value of your retail properties.
1. Evaluate Your Rent Roll
This is a good time to take a fresh look at your rent roll. Confirm when each tenant’s lease expires, whether they have options, and what the notification provisions are for exercising those options. This will allow you to strategize with your leasing broker and property manager on how to handle upcoming lease expirations.
It is not uncommon to be surprised by how quickly time has passed on what feels like a “recent” lease. Knowing your dates and options well in advance gives you far more flexibility in deciding whether to renew, re‑tenant, or reposition a space. If you do not have a leasing broker or a strong relationship with one, this could also be a great time to take those calls from investment sales brokers and ask who they recommend for market advice.
2. Examine Your Insurance
Insurance used to be the “sleepy N” in the NNN (property taxes, insurance, and common area maintenance) equation. That is no longer the case. Many owners have seen insurance costs increase dramatically or have struggled to find coverage at all.
Know your policy expiration dates and work with an experienced insurance professional who can help you understand your options and the best value for your property. In today’s environment, it is also important to review the details of your coverage. For example, I recently extended loss‑of‑rents coverage from one year to two years. After observing how long it is taking for people to rebuild after the Southern California wildfires, I decided that there is no way that I could ever rebuild and get tenants paying rent within one year. Even doing it in two years would be extremely challenging.
3. Evaluate Rental Rates
In many markets, rents have increased substantially over the past decade. A tenant with a 5‑year lease and a 5‑year option may now be paying a rent that is far below current market, especially restaurant tenants.
Too often, landlords and property managers take the path of least resistance and agree to only a 3% to 5% increase, even when the market might justify something closer to 50%. Before you head into renewal discussions, speak with a leasing professional or a quality investment sales broker who understands your priorities and can share realistic expectations on achievable rents for your specific space and tenant profile.
4. Examine Your Property Taxes
For many owners, assessed values have climbed over time and now trail the current market value of the property. But in some cases, especially where there has been significant vacancy due to closures by tenants such as large box retailers, the property’s current value may be lower than its assessed value.
If you think that might be your situation, contact the county assessor’s office where your property is located and learn about their reassessment or appeal process, along with key deadlines. There are professionals who specialize in property tax appeals and are often paid a percentage of any tax savings. After speaking with the county, you can decide whether to engage one of these firms or pursue a reduction on your own. In clear‑cut cases, the assessor may prefer to work out a solution directly with you rather than going through a formal appeal, and you may decide that securing a meaningful reduction without third‑party fees is a worthwhile outcome even if it is not the absolute maximum possible savings.
5. Determine Building Improvements
Even though your retail center may be NNN, there are often items that, while technically pass‑through eligible, you may not want to push to tenants—especially as a lump sum rather than amortized over time. There are also capital improvements that are not pass‑through items at all.
Deferred maintenance and underinvestment can gradually erode your property’s competitiveness. A center with aging signage, tired landscaping, poor lighting, or ongoing roof and parking lot issues will eventually become much harder to lease. This is a great time to evaluate your property and commit to targeted improvements that will benefit the asset over the long term. Frequently, owners get the most impact from updating monument signage, converting and enhancing lighting (including LED upgrades), trimming trees and refreshing landscaping, and implementing measures that discourage homelessness and loitering. Staying ahead of roof and parking lot repairs, including drainage, can also prevent much more expensive problems down the road.
6. Assess Your Leasing Team
Your leasing agents should be in regular communication with you—at least monthly—sharing updates on showings, feedback from prospects, marketing efforts, and ideas to improve the lease‑up prospects for your property.
If you are receiving this type of communication and your spaces are still sitting vacant, the challenge may be more about the market or the property than the team. But if you are not hearing from your leasing agents, or you are not getting thoughtful strategies and follow‑through, it may be time to start interviewing other leasing professionals who are better aligned with your goals.
7. Analyze Your Debt
First, make sure you know exactly when each of your loans is coming due. Owners with multiple properties and loans can easily lose track of a maturity date until it is uncomfortably close.
If you have a loan coming due in the next 6 to 12 months, start exploring your options early. In today’s environment, underwriting can be more conservative, and the process often takes longer, with lenders sometimes changing terms late in the process or adding conditions that are difficult to meet. Early analysis gives you time to decide whether you need to contribute additional equity, consider a sale, or seek alternative financing. Starting 9 to 12 months ahead can help you avoid unnecessary stress, fees, or last‑minute choices that are not in your best long‑term interest.
8. Review Your Return on Equity and Depreciation
Many owners think about return on investment in terms of their original equity and current net income. However, the more important metric is return on current equity—sometimes called “sleepy equity”—which is your current NOI divided by your current equity in the property. For long‑held assets, this figure is often surprisingly low.
At the same time, depreciation is calculated on the original purchase price, not the current value, which can further reduce the relative tax benefits over time. These two factors often lead owners to realize that selling an existing asset and trading into a different property or asset class—potentially at a higher value and with reasonable leverage—might substantially improve their long‑term position. This is a conversation to have with your accountant and advisors well before tax season so you can evaluate your options thoughtfully.
9. Review Your Vendors
Take a close look at your vendors, including opportunities to bid out services such as trash, landscaping, parking lot sweeping, power washing, and day porter work. Over time, vendors may become complacent, and the quality of their work can slip even though you are paying the same rate.
Make sure you are receiving the level of service you expect for what you are paying. In some cases, offering a modest rate increase to a good vendor—rather than pushing for the lowest possible cost—can actually improve service quality and build loyalty without the disruption of changing providers. The goal is not just to save a few dollars, but to ensure your property is well‑maintained and presents well to tenants and customers.
Owning a retail center is not easy, even if you have strong property management in place. At Progressive Real Estate Partners, there is a deep bench of relationships and expertise that can help address the issues outlined above. Our leasing and investment sales team is available to share our relationships and knowledge to help you with any of the issues stated above.
On behalf of the Progressive Real Estate Partners team, best wishes for successful and rewarding retail property ownership in 2026.