CIRB News & Transactions
News 04/01/2004 : Kaplan Real Estate Updates Kaplan Real Estate Company [www.kaplanrealestate.com] is a “boutique” sized, multi faceted commercial real estate development, brokerage and property management firm, based in St. Louis and has successfully put together deals in 12 states across America according to company vice president, David A. Wright. Recently, Kaplan has completed development projects and other types of deals for companies such as Walgreens, St. Louis Bread Co. (Panera, Inc.) Lowe’s, Quizno’s and many other companies of both a national and local scope. According to Wright, “while our emphasis is in retail real estate, our experienced staff has the ability to successfully put quality deals together in other areas of real estate such as office, warehouse, ground, investment sales or other specialty areas such as senior housing for example”. A number of the real estate agents at Kaplan come from a law practice background and have law degrees. This gives us a unique ability to not only spot and hone in on potential issues quickly when working on deals, but more importantly the ability to solve issues in a positive and satisfactory manner according to Jay Cohen, an agent at Kaplan who previously practiced law for 10 years prior to joining Kaplan over three years ago. Cohen stated that his prior law experience both in private practice and in St. Louis County Missouri’s County Counselor’s office has given him keen insight in dealing with issues such as condemnation, lease and sales negotiations and generally, successfully completing deals. “We don’t tend to shy away from tough deals” says Cohen, “whether it is a difficult land assemblage for a development project or otherwise”. “We are willing to and welcome the opportunity to take on tough assignments” says Wright. An example of such assignments is the work that Kaplan has done recently for U. S. Bankruptcy Court Trustees in handling the disposition of real estate assets. “This involves an added layer of legal and other issues to wade through in order to successfully complete an assignment” says Cohen. The Kaplan organization is ideally prepared to handle these and other types of complicated transactions.
Kaplan was recently awarded the right to be the St. Louis area member of the Council of International Restaurant Real Estate Brokers (“CIRB”) [www.cirb.net] – a national network of real estate professionals with members in 22 cities across America that specialize in putting together restaurant deals and providing other real estate related services to the restaurant industry. CIRB members represent just about every national and regional restaurant chain one could imagine. “We are very excited about pairing up with an organization like CIRB. This will enhance our ability to better serve our existing base of restaurant clients as well as grow the restaurant related business our company currently handles” said Wright. In recent years, Kaplan has done numerous restaurant deals and with and for companies such as: Quizno’s, St. Louis Bread Company (Panera, Inc.), White Castle, Souper Salad!, Taco Bell, and IHOP just to name a few.
In addition to restaurant deals, Kaplan continues to pursue build to suit development deals for national and regional retail chains. For example, Kaplan has had a long term relationship with the Walgreens Company and has developed numerous stores for Walgreens in three different states in recent years. “In this facet of our business, we work with companies such as Walgreens, ascertaining their specific site and building needs, go out and find the sites that satisfy their needs, build their prototypical building and lease it to them on a long term basis” according to Wright. “This affords retailers the opportunity to open a number of units and locations in an efficient and timely manner by extending the reach of their real estate departments, and keeps retailers money and other assets freed up for their core business instead of in “dirt, bricks and sticks” and the often times arduous development process. “We help companies meet the growth and development projections and expectations of their investors – the Wall Street Expectations” says Wright.
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