Andrea DeSimone
Title: Vice president of retail services, CBRE Grossman Retail Advisors
Age: 36
Experience: 13 years
Andrea DeSimone helps landlords spice up their restaurant offerings and makes reservations for new dining concepts looking for locations in the competitive Boston market. Since 2010, DeSimone has led CBRE Grossman Retail Advisors’ urban team, representing landlords such as Fan Pier developer Fallon Co. and tenants such as Paul Bakery and Papagayo. She also is active in leasing of prime retail storefronts from the Seaport to Back Bay.
Q: What was your specialty in your previous position at Edens & Avant?
A: I got my real estate start at Edens and worked for them for almost six years doing grocery-anchored shopping center leasing: a portfolio of Stop & Shop and Target centers all over New England. I had a great mentor who took me under her wing and introduced me to a lot of her colleagues: Elizabeth Furnelli, who heads up the New England office in Boston. In 2009, Jeremy Grossmanand CBRE were starting the retail advisors group and he asked me to come on and be his urban retail broker. I had co-chaired ICSC Next Generation committees with him and he worked for Samuels & Assoc. which was a joint venture partner with Edens and we had worked together, so it was a relationship play.
I realized there was a restaurant niche in Boston. My husband is a chef at Spiga in Needham and I knew this is a whole line of business that was picking up, so I started the CBRE national restaurant group. Probably the most exciting project we’re working on is the Fan Pier with Joe Fallon. We’ve just introduced 22 Liberty to the market. It’s a beautiful space on the first floor of the luxury residential building, with a large outdoor patio. We are currently speaking with prospects. When we first started working on this project, we would have one showing a week. Then it became one showing a day starting with the summer and now it’s three a day.
Q: What are the differences in ground-floor leasing strategy for condos as opposed to office buildings?
A: Very different. You have to make sure you can do restaurant vending in any situation. The restaurateurs want a patio. The condos may have balconies looking over a lively patio, whereas the office building will clear out in the evening. Sound barriers, odors, there’s a lot of challenges. If anyone was developing any kind of new building today, I would make sure you could vent properly for a restaurant. If you don’t need it, it’s fine. But chances are you will need it.
Q: What’s the hottest neighborhood in Boston for retail rent growth?
A: In the Seaport since 2010 we have tripled, and that’s similar to Downtown Crossing as well. Back Bay has stayed at the high water mark, around $225 a foot triple-net. There are some very high asking rents in the Seaport, but in terms of completed rents we’re not pressing $100 yet. But it will get there. For retail, Back Bay is still the lead. I don’t think you’ll ever see the diminution of Newbury Street.
Q: From a landlord’s standpoint, who is the ideal restaurant tenant?
A: We are not necessarily looking for the chain restaurant that’s in every other major market. What’s important is to get the mix right. We’re trying to bring some new flavors, innovative techniques. We love a celebrity chef. Having Mario Batali (Fan Pier’s Babbo Pizzeria) has been great. Committee has been doing very well. You can’t just do interesting food. It has to be the total experience.
Q: Why haven’t any grocery stores made a commitment in the Seaport?
A: They need a large amount of space to be able to open a full-size grocery or pharmacy. And I don’t know there are large blocks of space available for them. I do think we’ll have many small specialized grocers pop up because the need is there. Groceries also need access to loading multiple times of day. And they want access to parking.
Q:Who are some of the notable retailers entering Greater Boston now?
A: Kit and Ace is opening on Newbury. You have Woolrich opening on Newbury Street. A lot of men’s clothiers are looking at Newbury Street, larger format stores. Down here (in Downtown Crossing) we have a large anchor opportunity at Lafayette City Center. In the last 30 days since Primark has opened, we have had a definite increase in interest from outside of Boston. The offices upstairs are leased to interesting tech tenants: Sonos, Carbonite, so the rest of the building is complete.
Q:What’s the key to attracting retailers who are new to Greater Boston?
A:They need to see their competitors and friends doing well in this market. The success of Primark and Roche Bros. have been helpful to get other European retailers to come and look. Cafe Nero, Paul Bakery, Ogawa Coffee. Downtown the foot traffic is incredible. We have the highest foot traffic in all of New England. To see all of these retailers landing here first and doing well speaks volumes about the downtown neighborhood.
Top 5 Things DeSimone Has Recently Eaten In Boston
- Sorellina’s lobster gnocchi
- Del Frisco’s Shanghai calamari
- Bricco’s Chilean sea bass
- LX’s Bang bang cauliflower
- B.Good’s three greens smoothies
