(Raanan Katz) RK Centers welcomes Guitar Center to RK Queen Plaza

RK Centers welcomes Guitar Center to RK Queen Plaza

RK Centers welcomes Guitar Center to RK Queen Plaza

04-01-2013

Press Release

RK Queen Plaza is a 172,000 SF shopping center located in Southington, CT. Co-tenants include T.J. Maxx, Bed Bath & Beyond, Dollar Tree, and Bob's Discount Furniture.

Southington, CT (April 1, 2013)– RK Centers (www.rkcenters.com) and Guitar Center are excited to announce the construction of a new Guitar Center store at RK Queen Plaza in Southington, CT.  The 11,000 square foot new store’s location provides local music students and the surrounding community access to Guitar Center’s vast product selection, specialty instruments and unbeatable prices. Located at 825-875 Queen Street (Route 10), Guitar Center Southington is scheduled to open late Spring 2013 with an official Grand Opening day of music-centered activities open to the public (details to be announced).

 “We are excited to welcome Guitar Center to RK Queen Plaza and eagerly anticipate this great tenant opening their doors” said Ken Fries of RK Centers.  At RK Queen Plaza, Guitar Center will join other national retailers such as Bed Bath and Beyond, TJ Maxx, Payless Shoes, Radio Shack, and Supercuts in addition to many others. For Leasing information, contact Ken Fries or Andrew Fisch at 781-320-0001 or leasing@rkcenters.com

RK Centers (formerly known as R.K. Associates) is a privately held, family-owned real estate development company which currently owns over 6,000,000 square feet of retail space and 100,000 square feet of office space. With a stable business model utilizing a minimal amount of leverage, we are poised to acquire additional properties as we continue to grow our portfolio. Our company typically closes on acquisitions in less than 30 days with its own funds; thereby eliminating the need to obtain financing. With over thirty years of experience in real estate, RK Centers has a proven track record of success with tenants, customers and the communities in which we operate. All of RK Centers' leasing and management is performed in-house by company staff.

The company was founded and is principally owned by Raanan Katz, who entered the real estate development arena in the 1970s. He has guided the company with a steady growth rate which has withstood numerous market cycles. His "hands-on" approach and conservative borrowing practices have resulted in a portfolio of first-class properties with an extremely low debt structure, resulting in RK Centers being one of the more stable shopping center operators in the industry. RK Centers welcomes inquiries from national and regional retailers who are interested in drawing upon our considerable resources for assistance in site selection or other expansion needs. More information on Raanan Katz and RK Centers can be found at www.rkcenters.com.

Raanan Katz Minority Owner of Miami Heat/RK Centers

Raanan Katz Minority Owner of Miami Heat/RK Centers

Raanan Katz Blvd Gallery of Images @ Collins Ave

Raanan Katz BLVD - South Bound

Raanan Katz @ Pollo Tropocal Restaurant

170th - Raanan Katz Blvd

Raanan Katz Sing of 170th Street

Sunny Isles Beach

@ Raanan Katz Shopping Center

Jade Ocean @ RK Centers

170th Street - Collins Ave

Shot on Collins Ave - Raanan Katz Blvd

RK Shopping Center Pylon Sign

Raanan Katz RK Centers

RK Centers signs first Pembroke lease with Fitworks

Just a couple of weeks after acquiring RK North River Plaza, Raanan Katz and his team have leased one of the 4 vacancies at the shopping center.

Fitworks will occupy space 160 next to Staples.

Check out the website for additional property details.

www.rkcenters.com

RK North River Plaza construction

Raanan Katz has started the replacement of all columns as part of a full facade upgrade.

Raanan Katz and RK CENTERS ANNOUNCES THE ACQUISITION OF NORTH RIVER PLAZA, PEMBROKE, MA.

Raanan Katz Information - New Shopping Center Acquisition

Pembroke, MA - RK Centers is pleased to announce the acquisition of North River Plaza, Pembroke, MA. Renamed to RK North River Plaza, the 241,000 SF center is anchored by Super Stop & Shop, Kohl’s and Staples.

RK has already begun renovations to the center including a new facade, improved landscaping and improved signage.

“We hit the ground running. Our team was able to line up our contractors during the due diligence phase and we were able to start without delay” says David Katz of RK Centers.
With occupancy close to 96%, RK’s leasing team was able to focus on filling the remaining vacancies with national retailers. “Due to our existing South Shore presence, we were aware of many moving parts that would fit well with North River’s existing uses” said Kenneth Fries of RK Centers, “our leasing efforts are well underway.”

RK North River Plaza is located at Exit 12 near the intersection of Routes 3 and 139.
RK Centers is a privately held, family-owned real estate development company which currently owns over 6,000,000 square feet of commercial space, with expertise in the acquisition, development, and management of "open air" regional and community shopping centers in New England and South Florida. Additional information about RK Centers is available on the Internet at www.rkcenters.com.

Property permalink: http://rkcenters.com/rk-north-river-plaza-pembroke.php 

Leasing Contact:  Kenneth Fries  RK Centers  456 Providence Highway  Dedham, MA 02026  Marketing Contact: Kevin Belmont  RK Centers  456 Providence Highway  Dedham, MA 02026  781-320-0001

Sunny Isles Beach Commercial Real Estate: RK Centers has purchased RK Sage Plaza (800 E. Hal...

Sunny Isles Beach Commercial Real Estate: RK Centers has purchased RK Sage Plaza (800 E. Hal...: RK Sage Plaza RK San Souci RK Sage Plaza is located on the very busy Hallandale Beach Blvd., the main east/west corridor in the...

NEREJ - Question of the Month: Can technology improve communication and efficiency for field personnel?

NEREJ - Question of the Month: Can technology improve communication and efficiency for field personnel?

Question of the Month: Can technology improve communication and efficiency for field personnel?

Kevin Belmont, RK Centers

A property manager walks onto a property to do an inspection. They take out a pad of paper and a pen and start to focus on the details. He or she visits tenants and makes notes of maintenance deficiencies and creating talking points for vendor calls or in-house staff. It could be a leasing sign that has fallen from a window, a tenant looking to talk about a renewal or the lack of weeding on the part of the landscaper. If the property manager is responsible for a portfolio of properties, visiting a group of properties in a day is typical. At the end of a long day of field visits, it is time to type the list up, see what calls need to be made, and plan how the deficiencies will be resolved.

In the above scenario, one might say nothing was done incorrectly. The property manager is doing his or her job and managing the properties. At RK Centers, a company founded by Raanan Katz over thirty years ago, we thought hard about the challenges field personnel have on a daily basis and asked the question - how could it be more efficient? How could our personnel communicate better? What technology would allow us to communicate in real time and be maintained by multiple departments and/or employees?

Our first task was to determine how the RK Centers property management/development team could share task lists and have the ability to modify the lists in the field? For many years, our company used a "Property Book," which was managed by one of our office-based team. It was about 200 pages of information that was reprinted as edits were completed at the weekly management meetings. The book included current task lists for property management, property site plans, and important phone numbers for each property. Given its size, the book was not convenient to carry around, not to mention that amount of paper that was being used on a weekly basis.

The solution came after many trials. We had field personnel call into office personnel for manual updates to the lists, which was labor intensive and not effective. We tried laptops and using the remote desktop connection allowing employees to access the server. This method allowed the user to access the network and see the digital lists and/or access property data when needed. While this method was an improvement over the manual method, the time needed to fire up a laptop and access information was just not effective. The company's founder Raanan Katz encouraged the team to continue to seek a technological solution, which came after many months of trial and error. After significant brainstorming, the team found the ideal application to use on the Apple iPad - Notespark. With Notespark, we found the perfect way to access our task lists and manage the important phone numbers needed in the field. Notespark allows for a team to create, edit, and share task lists on the iPad for field staff in real-time, meanwhile, office staff can access this information on the Notespark.com website. Notespark's website www.notespark.com states that, "Notespark gives you a single set of notes that you can access from the web, iPhone and iPad. Your iPhone keeps its own copy of the notes so you can use them even when you are offline and synchronize when you are ready. By default, your notes are private, but you can also share your notes with other people." RK Centers has been using this solution since February of this year. We no longer need to maintain a cumbersome property book, which saves money and time. Beyond these savings, our staff now has up to date information in the field.

Another topic that fell under the question of field staff communications was software for the leasing staff to manage leasing activities, which we solved by using a product from Avidian Software. Avidian Prophet CRM software is embedded inside Microsoft Outlook and was accessible on the iPad and web. The software, Prophet was the perfect solution. Users did not have to leave Outlook to manage prospects and it has full reporting capabilities. Previously, the leasing reports had to be manually maintained and needed constant updating. As a result, we did not have real time information about leasing. Now, with Prophet, RK Centers document all leasing prospects and the reporting is completed with a click of a button.

Our final task was to give real time access to files needed in the field. Dropbox was the solution. It allows for remote access and sharing of files. Dropbox has become a vital tool we never knew we needed. We have real time access to leasing brochures for leasing meetings, construction plans for field emergencies, and all other documents that may be needed in the field.

These technological solutions have changed the way RK Centers communicates in the field. They have been extremely effective for our business. RK Centers is a privately held, family-owned real estate development company founded by Raanan Katz which currently owns over 6 million s/f of commercial space. RK Centers' core business is acquiring, developing and operating prime "open air" regional and community shopping centers in New England and South Florida. All of RK Centers' leasing and management is performed in-house by company staff.

More information can be found at www.rkcenters.com.

Kevin Belmont is director of marketing and information technology for RK Centers, Dedham, Mass.