A&G Delivers $1.7 Billion in Occupancy-Cost Savings for Clients in First 9 Mos. of 2020

--Amid sweeping changes in real estate, the advisory firm has negotiated lower rents on 9,550 retail, restaurant, supermarket, office, fitness and entertainment leases.

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A&G Real Estate Partners

Nov 23, 2020, 08:53 ET

MELVILLE, N.Y., Nov. 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A&G Real Estate Partners (A&G) today announced record results for the first nine months of 2020—efforts that resulted in a total of $1.68 billion in occupancy-cost reductions for 51 retailers, restaurants, educational users, office tenants and fitness and entertainment operators.

Graiser: "The pandemic tested both our core teams as well as our consultants. They have all worked seven days a week since the virus hit to catalyze real estate strategies for our clients, whether right-sizing their operations or reorganizing under chapter 11."

Amendola: "The landlords also deserve significant credit here. Many of them were dealing with hundreds or even thousands of tenants earlier this year that all needed help at the same time."

With the vast majority of the work done since March 1, the portfolio-optimization specialists at A&G have worked on a total of 13,653 leases. They negotiated lower rents on 9,550 of those and secured terminations on 950, amounting to a 77% success rate. The unprecedented volume is a bellwether for the sweeping changes occurring across nearly all sectors of real estate, said Andy Graiser, A&G Co-President, who added that the firm's year-to-date success rate on lease negotiations was well above the typical 50% ratio.

"The pandemic tested both our core teams as well as our consultants. They have all worked seven days a week since the virus hit to catalyze real estate strategies for our clients, whether right-sizing their operations or reorganizing under chapter 11." he said. "It's an ongoing task that has far exceeded anything we could have imagined."

A&G's clients over the past nine months have included Chico's, Cinépolis, Ascena Retail Group, Rue 21, Tuesday Morning, GNC, Guitar Center, DSW, Francesca's, Tailored Brands, NPC International, Pier 1 Imports, Stage Stores, Sur La Table, Cadence Education, and Sequential Brands.

The latest results do not include the dozens of other companies for which A&G provided advisory services and strategic support over the past nine months, Graiser noted. "Every day, we're providing guidance and advice on real estate to hedge funds, private equity firms, lenders, investment bankers and term lenders," he said. "They are turning to us because of our real-time knowledge of what's transpiring in an extremely volatile marketplace, as well as our strategic and creative leadership, credibility with landlords and successful 30-year track record."

To deal with the unprecedented volume of leases, A&G needed to rethink its own approach and methodologies, noted Emilio Amendola, A&G Co-President. "It's why we created our Financial Reporting & Property Analysis Group," he said. "We hired experts in integrating data from site-selection and demographics services, proprietary databases, lease documentation and other sources," he explained. "The ability to quickly access more and better information on behalf of our clients has been a game-changer."

Other moves included adding to A&G's stable of core professionals and consultants, with an average of 20 years of real estate experience among these personnel. For clients needing to dispose of fee-owned properties, the firm also brought in a team specializing in structured real estate sales, with deep experience in accelerated sealed-bid sales and auctions of individual sites and portfolios.

Closer collaboration and coordination of efforts among stakeholders also contributed to A&G's record results. "This was a team effort involving both our deal-makers and support teams, as well as our clients and their professional advisors and attorneys," Amendola said. "The landlords also deserve significant credit here. Many of them were dealing with hundreds or even thousands of tenants earlier this year that all needed help at the same time."

The need to optimize real estate, whether the sector is education, office, retailing or the theater business, continues, Graiser added.

"A number of our clients who had planned on a so-called 'V'-shaped recovery are now turning to us to start a Phase 2 project," he said. "We have helped them work through their immediate liquidity issues. Now we are leveraging our greater visibility into the impact on business results to make better projections and reset rents to align occupancy costs to what is going to be the 'new normal' for many businesses."

About A&G Real Estate Partners
A&G is a team of seasoned commercial real estate professionals and subject matter experts that delivers strategies designed to yield the highest possible value for clients' real estate. Key areas of expertise include occupancy cost reductions, lease terminations, dispositions, structured real estate sales, real estate due diligence, valuations, acquisitions, and facilitation of growth opportunities. Utilizing its marketing knowledge, reputation and advanced technology, A&G has advised the nation's most prominent retailers and corporations in both healthy and distressed situations. The firm's team has achieved rent-reduction and occupancy-cost savings approaching $6 billion on behalf of clients in every real estate sector, while selling more than $12 billion of non-core properties and leases. Founded in 2012, A&G is headquartered in Melville, N.Y. and also has an office in Chicago. For more information, please visit: http://www.agrep.com/

Press Contacts for A&G: Jaffe Communications (908-789-0700), Bill Parness or Elisa Krantz, [email protected]

SOURCE A&G Real Estate Partners