Lease Management

Tanglin Mall has some good leasing techniques such as focusing on its anchor tenant. The anchor tenant of Tanglin Mall is ‘iwannagohome’ which occupied the entire first two levels of the mall. This has aided in enhancing its reputation and value of the property, which can attract more customers to patronize the mall and bring crowds to the other stores as well. The name of the store has been prominently displayed as an anchor tenant outside of the mall, which is a form of marketing and advertising to the public to draw them to the mall. As the mall is located inconveniently away from the MRT station, not many customers would be willing to patronize the mall. However, placement of an exclusive store not widely available island wide, such as ‘iwannagohome’, as an anchor tenant is a good strategy of attracting more customers to the isolated mall and has a positive effect of the property’s marketing positioning. Assuming the anchor tenant has a good track record of prompt rental payments, it helps Tanglin Mall secure returns by investing in stable tenants who pay high rents.

Moreover, it has leased its retail stores to some stores such as ‘Salam Carpets’,’Wingngai’ and ‘Carlos Gallery’, which focuses on selling traditional and cultural items. These leases are unique and exclusive as they stand apart from the typical fashion and high-end outlets, which gives the mall a competitive edge over the rest. Especially with target market of tourists and foreigners who would be keener to patronize these stores to shop for cultural items, Tanglin Mall has exploited on a good tenant mix, which can bring in more customers and crowd to the mall. These stores has been located at a level where there will be heavy pedestrian flow so that more people can patronize the store and as such generate great profitability for the firm.

However, the mall is currently facing economic obsolescence due to outdated stores. Some of the stores in the mall such as “Magic Wand’ no longer meet the preferences of the customers. Tanglin Mall’s property management team has perhaps failed to do market research on a regular basis to discover the changing consumers tastes and ensure that they bring in tenants to meet the new tastes and preferences. This might be a sign of poor lease management which can affect the potential profitability of the business. Being located in a popular location like Orchard, with aggressive competition, if Tanglin Mall doesn’t keep up with the updated changes, it will lose out and slowly become obsolete and shutdown.

However there also has been some inconsistency in the tenant mix. Tanglin Mall caters to high end customers and has range of tenants from ‘British India’ to‘Emma Bridgewater’. However, there also are small-scale shops such as ‘Gymboree’ and ‘Magic Wand’ which can affect the image that Tanglin Mall wishes to portray. The property manager has failed to align the owner’s objectives of high-end brand image and as such lead to improper distribution of the tenant mix. This can lead to affect the reputation and as such the profitability of the high-end shops. Some of the tenants are not compatible with the other tenants and they failed to comply with the tenant placement and mix.

Overall, the property manager has been maintaining the lease of the tenants well by securing a well-established anchor tenant and exploiting on the exclusivity of some culturally inclined shops. However, it is important to do regular market research in order to ensure that the stores have been refurbished and meet the current tastes of the consumers or people will stop patronizing the mall. With greater investment in market research the owner can ensure that the building will not reach economic obsolescence and can continue to reap high profits. In addition, by aligning the goals of the owners with the various tenant mix, the property will be able to clearly portray the high-end image it wishes to portray.