Q&A: Edge Realty Partners Continues Growth with Hire of Skrbin in California

Stephanie Skrbin

Commercial real estate firm Edge Realty Partners recently announced the hire of Stephanie Skrbin as a new partner and principal in Southern California. The firm, which has offices in Austin/San Antonio, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston and Southern California, specializes in property leasing, tenant representation, land disposition, development and investment sales.

Edge currently represents more than 250 tenants as well as 10 million square feet of commercial space, $1.5 billion in development experience and offers over $6 billion in investment sales experience.

We caught up with two of the firm’s principals, Paul Bartlett and Lea Clay Park to discuss the recent growth at Edge as well as the recent hire of Skrbin.

Q. Edge Realty Partners has recently added several new team members, including industry veteran Stephanie Skrbin. What is behind that growth?

A. Culture is foundational at Edge Realty Partners, so the onboarding of Stephanie Skrbin is key to driving our growth in Southern California. Stephanie’s experience with capital markets and consultancy, along with her physical presence in the densely populated Los Angeles market rounds out an already robust team of established leadership. Stephanie is passionate, energetic, whip smart, fair and honest. This makes her a 100% fit with our culture. With the addition of Stephanie, Edge will gain additional expertise and diversity of thought, enabling us to better serve and advise our existing clients, improve and expand our infrastructure and service lines, and build upon the existing team for future business/assignments.

Q. What sets Edge apart in the marketplace as a boutique retail brokerage?

A. Our collaboration guides the way we approach business. It is our culture. It creates trust and provides value for all stakeholders, clients, third party partners and our internal team. Our personality is open and responsive to new ideas and sharing insights based on the information and intelligence gained from collective experience and continual research. We also value fresh thinking as well as resourceful and creative problem solving.

We fight for what’s fair for our clients, we are advocates for them, their businesses and driven to deliver only the best results. We provide a breadth and depth of retail real estate market knowledge (economy/employment, tourism, commercial real estate metrics, comps, trends, etc) and experience across a wide geography as well as a breadth and depth of trade area knowledge and experience. We also bring consultancy experience in data analytics/modeling, financial analysis, outsourced real estate services, asset management, expert witness and development.

Q. What do you see ahead as a sound strategy for retail tenants for the coming months? What advice do you have?

A. Success in retail traditionally meant curating the right assortment, keeping it fresh, and meeting customer needs at the store level. These factors are still important, but increasingly they are only part of the picture. As the pandemic and macro-economic forces continue to drive demand for omni-channel shopping, retailers will need to enhance their skill sets to achieve the same results not only in store, but on-line, mobile, and even at the curb. This evolution requires a greater respect for data and a more holistic approach to real estate. The “gut feel” of old will give way to increasingly sophisticated analytics, but real estate fundamentals will remain as important as ever.

Given the pandemic’s likely and possibly permanent effects on certain consumers, we encourage any business in the “retail ecosystem” to invest the time to innovate, adapt and reinvent their value proposition.  The pandemic’s rapid acceleration of consumer trends has put a rush order on that need.  Kohl’s is a good example of a company making significant moves with a forward-looking outlook. They will add Amazon return centers, which should boost foot traffic. In addition, their recently announced partnership with Sephora to include a “store within a store” helps differentiate them from their department store and off-price peers and connects them with a new customer base.  Of course, many businesses that currently have constrained cash flows and unhealthy balance sheets may try to eliminate or reduce costs associated with investment in innovation to try and preserve profitability, but if companies make this short term decision, it will likely further separate them from successful peers that continuously invest and innovate.

No matter the challenge, our advice to any retailer in this climate is to choose partners that understand the prevailing forces and can meet them head on.  At Edge Realty Partners, we excel at knowing the right data to analyze, how to interpret it, and translate it into meaningful real estate solutions.

For comments, questions or concerns, please contact David Cohen