A Place That Works for People, Tenants, and Landlords: The Art of Retail Strategy

For too long, “retail strategy” has been confused with “leasing strategy.” Many in the property sector believe that securing tenants and rental income equals success. But leasing is just one piece of a much bigger puzzle.

What’s missing? A retail strategy — the art of creating places that people love, where tenants thrive, and landlords see long-term value.

Leasing focuses on transactions. Retail strategy focuses on building destinations.

What Comes First: Retail Strategy or Leasing Strategy?

It’s simple: Retail strategy must come first.

A retail strategy defines a precinct’s vision, purpose, and identity. It answers key questions:

• How will this centre serve its community?
• What experiences will it offer?
• How will it stay relevant over time?
• Who, why, and when are people visiting?
• What should the design be to facilitate the creation of a destination?
• How will the precinct be managed?
• What is its role in the local retail and centre hierarchy?

Leasing flows from this foundation. Without a clear strategy, leasing becomes reactive — focused on filling vacancies rather than building thriving, sustainable places.

A retail strategy is the blueprint. It outlines the right mix of uses — retail, hospitality, health, and public spaces — and considers operational costs, community needs, and long-term activation. Leasing is the tactical execution, securing tenants who assist in bringing that vision to life.

But leasing professionals aren’t just executors. They should be involved early in the process. Their knowledge of market conditions, tenant preferences, and emerging trends ensures the strategy is both visionary and viable. Their input helps design spaces that work for tenants and their customers.

Leasing without a retail strategy is like building walls without a foundation. The structure may stand for a while, but it won’t endure when conditions change.

A retail strategy must consider a broad range of inputs, including:

• Understanding the local community
• Considering planning regulations
• Tracking local and global trends
• Identifying amenity, services, and experience gaps
• Capturing the spirit of the local community
• Conducting economic and social research
• Assessing local competition
• Considering geographical location and microclimate impacts

What is Leasing?

Leasing is transactional. It’s about:

• Advising on tenant mix and shop sizes
• Setting rental rates and incentives
• Providing input on tenancy design and layout
• Reviewing economic conditions and market trends

Leasing professionals drive occupancy and contribute to a centre’s financial performance. However, this approach often prioritises short-term gains — filling spaces quickly without focusing on long-term community value.

Recent reports from Urbis and Colliers show that centres with a broader strategy outperform those reliant on traditional tenant types. For example, Melbourne Central’s transformation into a cultural hub helped it outshine other centres post-pandemic.

What is Retail Strategy?

Retail strategy is about place creation, place management, and community-building. It goes beyond tenancy to focus on creating vibrant, lasting destinations.

A retail strategy involves:

• Identifying the unique positioning of a retail project and its market opportunity
• Diversifying uses beyond retail — including hospitality, community uses, health, public spaces and events
• Collaborating with local communities to ensure relevance and developing partnerships with other landlords
• Integrating activation programs and long-term management models
• Considering operational models, sustainability, and governance
• Developing an experience plan that includes a range of uses and experiences
• Creating project and design briefs
• Developing marketing and communications strategies
• Engaging key users such as retailers during design
• Building ongoing property and place management practices

The goal of retail strategy is to build a sustainable solution that works for people, tenants, and landlords alike.

A strong retail strategy ensures that a place:

• Meets community needs with relevant services and experiences
• Supports tenants’ success by creating spaces that work for their operations
• Delivers long-term value to landlords by creating destinations people return to
• Feels safe and maintains high professional property and place management practices

At the core of this approach is respect — for tenants, communities, and customers. Retail strategy means designing with tenants and community in mind, ensuring spaces meet their needs and enhance customer experiences.

Why Retail Strategy Matters More Than Ever

The Australian retail sector is changing rapidly. Rising interest rates, cost-of-living pressures, and shifting consumer lifestyles and preferences demand a more sophisticated, experience-driven approach.

Consider Westmead Children’s Hospital. Instead of just planning for shops, the strategy included health and wellbeing services, a grocer, patient amenities, and community spaces. This focus on everyday needs made the precinct more relevant to the community it serves.

Similarly, food halls and markets thrive because they’re more than shopping spaces. They foster community, support local businesses, and provide authentic experiences. These spaces succeed by meeting evolving consumer expectations.

Online retail now owns the transaction and fulfilment phases of retail. Physical retail must focus on recruitment and retention of customers.

Successful physical retail delivers what modern customers seek:

• Quick, fast, and convenient retail amenity
• Slow and immersive experiences
• Local and independent retail
• A sense of belonging and connection

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Leasing’s Role in Retail Strategy

While retail strategy sets the vision, leasing brings it to life.

A well-executed leasing strategy helps:

• Curate a tenant mix that aligns with the centre’s identity
• Secure key (catalyst) tenants early to anchor the precinct
• Foster partnerships with tenants to ensure spaces meet their needs
• Identify core tenant needs to maximise sales potential and reduce operational costs

The best solutions are built with tenant input. Understanding tenants’ needs and incorporating them into the design process ensures spaces are fit for purpose and meet operational requirements. For example:

• Food retailers need tailored tenancy layouts to drive sales
• Tenants require efficient storage and logistics solutions
• Community spaces benefit from flexible design for events and activations

This collaborative approach ensures tenants thrive, leading to stronger outcomes for landlords.

Case Studies: Retail Strategy in Action

The Grove, Los Angeles

The Grove in Los Angeles is an example of retail strategy done right. Designed as a destination rather than a mall, it integrates public spaces, retail, and entertainment to create a vibrant, multi-use precinct all informed with high-quality user engagement. It achieves annual visitation greater than Disneyland or the Great Wall of China and is the second top sales-performing retail centre by square feet productivity in the US.

Its success lies in its community-first approach — an external centre with wide walkways, green spaces, co-location with independent retailers at the LA farmers market, and a strong focus on experiences, providing a point of difference to the internal shopping malls of LA.

Melbourne Central, VIC

Post-pandemic, Melbourne Central has become Australia’s most productive centre. Its success wasn’t driven by leasing alone. Instead, it focused on cultural activation and experiential retail to attract people back.

Regular pop-ups, art installations, and community collaborations make Melbourne Central a destination for more than just shopping.

Everton Plaza, QLD

Everton Plaza is a Coles-anchored, mixed-use retail centre that has been repositioned as a more urban, edgy, independent offering. It provides a point of difference to the typical supermarket-based centre dominated by national chains.

Sales at Everton Plaza are significantly higher than benchmarks, with food and beverage categories achieving near double benchmark performance.

Its external-based design offers flexible tenancy sizes that meet tenant needs and align with its positioning.

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The Cost of Ignoring Strategy

Retail precincts that fail to develop a retail strategy struggle to remain relevant. Those reliant on traditional anchor tenants and cookie-cutter leasing models risk becoming outdated as consumer preferences shift toward experience-driven retail.

Without a clear strategy, centres become transactional spaces that fail to build loyalty or long-term engagement.

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The Case for a Shift in Thinking

For landlords, investors, and developers, the message is clear: Think beyond the lease.

A retail strategy is about creating places that people return to time and again — to shop, work, dine, and connect. It embeds a centre into the fabric of its community.

At Bellringer, we believe great places aren’t stumbled upon. They’re strategically planned and thoughtfully executed.

Leasing without a retail strategy is short-term thinking. A retail strategy creates long-term value by building destinations that matter.

Our mission is to help clients build places of significance. Well-crafted retail strategies future-proof assets, enrich communities, and create places people love.

Let’s start building places that work for people, tenants, and landlords.