In this episode of Broker’s Angle, Hal Coopersmith sits down with James Famularo for a wide-ranging conversation on the current state of the retail market and what truly drives successful real estate deals. Drawing on more than two decades of experience, James shares why retail remains resilient regardless of who is in office, highlights the hottest tenant categories, from food and beverage to health and wellness, and explains the critical role funding and passion play in an operator’s success.

Transcript

James Famularo: It’s no secret that I’m a Republican, but I have been in New York long enough to know that I’m surrounded by blue. So, the only impact I can have in politics is to look for the moderate Democrat. And four years ago, I thought I found the moderate in Eric Adams, and, you know, I guess I was wrong. I think he was great for public safety, but obviously, he missed on a whole slew of other areas that you have to be on point for as a mayor of New York City, he hired the wrong people and you know, his decisions were questionable across the board. So, I guess that’s what brought us to this situation we’re currently in now.

Hal Coopersmith: Yeah. And so what’s your prediction for the next four years?

James Famularo: I mean, it’s really too early to say. I think, you know, I was actually talking to a buddy earlier today and it’s going to be interesting to see how he plays this, first four years. You know, he could walk the line and then get reelected and then do exactly what de Blasio did, and then just go full socialist on us. And there was a lot of factors. It was COVID during de Blasio’s last few years, so I’m a diehard optimist, so I’m trying to be optimistic. It’s too early to tell what’s going to happen. But you know, at the end of the day, this is New York City, we’ve seen everything that you can imagine and always bounce back.

Hal Coopersmith: Where do you see the market going for retail?

James Famularo: You know, the good thing about retail is no matter who’s in office, you’ll always need, manicure, you’ll always need a haircut. You always need a bite to eat. So I think retail will remain strong. Unless there’s a mass exodus, which I don’t see that happening. A lot of people threaten to leave and I don’t see anybody leaving. So I think, we’ll be safe. I think, you know, it’s going to affect the market if he goes full socialist on us, but I don’t think that’s going to happen at least in his first term.

Hal Coopersmith: And market conditions now on the ground, this being December.

James Famularo: Exceptional. Exceptional, yeah.

Hal Coopersmith: Exceptional for landlords.

James Famularo: Yeah. If somebody signs a lease, the business owner wins. The broker wins, the attorneys win, the landlord wins. So it’s win for everybody involved.

Hal Coopersmith: What sort of deals are you seeing? Who are the hot tenants?

James Famularo: We do a lot of f and b, so we find a lot of QSRs, a lot of fine dining, a lot of bars, a lot of nightclubs, roof decks. So, that area especially for second generation spaces is always busy and active for us. But then there’s galleries, Tribeca, there’s a ton of galleries going in. There’s health and wellness. Fitness is a huge category and it’s just growing and growing and going in different directions. We did a longevity center in Chelsea. It was about 15,000 square feet, but people are really concerned about the health. And now with today’s technology, you know, there’s these IV therapy and stretch labs and you know, laser treatments and med spas. So it’s really kind of going in a bunch of different directions, which is good for everybody.

Hal Coopersmith: Over your career, you’ve seen different trends, different types of tenants, but maybe for f and b, kind of the same type of tenant. How do you know, first off, that a concept will fit the space or your best prediction for a concept fitting the space? And then, maybe you know, it is f and B. How can you tell an operator’s going to be the special operator?

James Famularo: I’m absolutely certain that I don’t know. Okay. And I think we were talking about it earlier, a long time ago. Many, many years, I believe it was 2010. I did a Ruby Rosa dealer, a pizzeria, and there were a couple of Italian guys from Staten Island. And I remember thinking this place is like flooded with Italian pizza joints and Italian restaurants. So it’s the last thing this neighborhood needs and I was so wrong, because as of today, in 2025, they’re still flourishing and thriving and doing great. And you know, I think they had a pop-up in the Hamptons and they do, did exceptionally well. So you never know. You never know. And that’s why we make it very clear we are brokers mostly on the landlord side. We present offers, you know, as many as we possibly could to landlords, the owner of the property, and they make the decision. You know, we give our recommendations when we’re asked to do so, but you know, it’s their property and they make the decision. And if they ask me my gut feeling, I’ll give it to them, but you never know.

Hal Coopersmith: Right. So let’s say you have two tenants. You’re kind of in the middle. You’ve interacted with enough tenants as they’re looking for space. Particularly for f and b, you know, you could be the right operator, it could be the right concept, and the business doesn’t work. And I’ve seen that too. There can be circumstances outside their control. One was a fire then it was COVID, you know, circumstances outside their control. And it was, I believe it to be the right operator. But for, you know, day zero, these are two offers, similar price. What do you see in an operator if you are kind of trusting your gut, both new, you know, same, sort of setting?

James Famularo: So I think the number one reason for operators to fail is always consistent. It’s always underfunding because if they think a job is going to be a million. You could almost guarantee it’s going to be 2 million. You know, if they think it’s going to be three or four months, it’s going to be six or seven months. So there’s always that factor. And once they go into money that they don’t have and they’re begging and borrowing and stealing from family and friends, they’re kind of get desperate and make desperate decisions and, you know, buy the cheaper chicken and the customers aren’t stupid and they taste it and they write bed reviews and they don’t come and they tell their friends and family and you know, it’s the beginning of the end. If you are fully funded, you know, you tend not to make those mistakes, and then you could deal with the other million mistakes that you could possibly make. But if you’re asking me the trait that I see the most in successful concepts. I would say once the funding is there, the other, factor is passion. If somebody’s truly passionate about their concept or, you know, presenting their concept or having people taste their food or whatever, experience their ambiance, most of the time succeed and I’ve seen it over and over and over again, but there’s so many factors.

Hal Coopersmith: So when you are showing a space to a tenant, how are you able to see that passion? What are some traits?

James Famularo: You don’t see that initially. You look for just interest, right? And once you have interest, you know, if there’s no interest and they’re shitting on the space, all right, tours over and let’s see, another space or good luck. But once there’s interest and they’re asking questions and they’re asking you, what do you think about the bar over here and what do you think about this kitchen over here? And I could do this over here. Then there’s obviously interest and a good broker would put together a term sheet or an LOI, and then you’d ask for financials. And during that process you’d ask, how did you come into this career or this industry? And, you know, it would snowball and become a bigger and bigger story to tell the landlord and then you as a good broker, should give the pros and the cons and as I said earlier, have them make the decision.

Hal Coopersmith: Right. And then in that point, where do you find out more about the funding and if you think that they might have enough to get started to launch off the ground?

James Famularo: Well, before you present everything to the landlord, you have to qualify them. And part of the qualifying, the individual is asking them, Hey, can you send me over your personal financial statement and tell me how many years you have in the business and who are you doing this by yourself, or is it with family or a group of investors? And you present all that information with the offer to the landlord.

Hal Coopersmith: Yeah, so you have the personal financial statement, obviously that makes sense. If it’s a smaller tenant, they’re a good guy guarantee or limited guarantee. But also, the business, Hey, you know, this is a job that might take 2 million and you’ve only secured a million dollars upon it.

James Famularo: Yeah. Look, everybody’s got their own different ways of guaranteeing the property. But yeah, personal financials will definitely show the wherewithal of the individual that’s going to sign the Good Guy Clause. But then the business financials will say, alright, well this person’s going to, is obviously successful in this, they’re running a 25% profit year over year. And, and they’ve done it in two or three or four locations and you know, it’s worth a bet, it’s worth a chance of renting this space because I think, a lot of people that aren’t in the industry, you know, they think what’s the big deal? The landlord will just give me the keys and I’ll take a shot. Well, the landlord just doesn’t give you the keys. The landlord has to give you free time, which in some cases can equate to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The landlord also has to pay legal fees, you know, which could range from 10 to 20 and some cases $30,000. The landlord has to pay a broker’s fee. The landlord has to do some renovations or pay TI in some situations so all that could, you know, equate to a hundred to 200 in some cases even more. So, they want to make sure that they’re going to take this chance and not to mention the locking up the property and this person could decide not to pay. And then we have to go through TNL court to get them out with an expensive litigator, long, lengthy process. So they really want to make sure they explore every avenue and are as certain as they possibly can before they sign a deal.

Hal Coopersmith: And we were talking earlier, one of the things that you pride yourself on and your team is that you’ll take deals of all sizes. You’re not saying no. What is it like doing a small deal versus big deal and why are you not saying no to anything?

James Famularo: It’s several reasons. Like if you are, if you have a client for 10 years and he asks you to do a 30,000 square foot space in the corner of Broadway and 42nd Street, and you’re looking at a $50,000 legal fee on that transaction, and that same client called you a year later and asked you to do a small office space for a three year term, are you going to say no? No, it’s the same way we look at it at Meridian, we service the client. So, and big or small, we wish they were all big, but that’s just not a reality. And, you know, we service a client, you know, that’s one factor. And the other factor is, like you said, once you start saying no to small deals, you’re obviously sending a message that you’re not interested in certain deals and that’s not the reputation we want.

Hal Coopersmith: So I’ll use your analogy. You know, you have the big deal on 42nd and Broadway, and then kind of small deal. You still service a client and you still, you may or may not be looking for different things in a lease, and the client may or may not be looking for the same thing in a lease. As an attorney, I can say that client on a three year smaller space office is not looking for the same legal fee as, you know, the $50,000. So you’re looking for different things. When you’re marketing a small space, who are you looking for and how are you reaching them?

James Famularo: So we cast a wide net. We have our relationships that we’ve cultivated over the years. We use Cosar and Loopnet, the MLS standard in our industry. But we also utilize social media. I don’t think a lot of retail leasing brokers are using social media the way we are. We promote over social media. We use SEO marketing, and we find that that really goes out to the masses and we get inquiry after inquiry. And at the end of the day, it’s really a math game. So if you’re showing a space once a month, chances that you’re going to lease it, very slim. If you’re showing a space multiple times every day, you know, 10, 12, 14 showings a week, the chances are very high that you’re going to lease it, no matter what use you’re looking for.

Hal Coopersmith: So when you’re marketing, let’s say a 1500 square foot space, have you identified the type of tenant and that’s where you start to push it out? And who might be interested or what’s kind of the process aside from, you know.

James Famularo: So we discuss categories. And nowadays, you know, say if downstairs on Lexington Avenue, or say 54th Street, we have a 500 square foot space, what’s good for the 500 square foot space? Use common sense. Maybe it’s a dry cleaner. If there’s none on the block or across the street, it’s dry cleaner, right? It could also be a coffee shop. It could possibly be a dessert shop. So our agents go to ChatGPT and say, ‘Hey, can I have a list of all the dry cleaners in the New York Tri-State area?’ And start calling each and every one of them and ask them, ‘Hey, would you want to open a second location? I have this great spot and it’s this big, and we’re asking this much rent, and when are you available to see it?’ And we go through the categories that we think would be good from there for there, but I would say, probably half the time, we get a use that we didn’t expect. So, you get a nail salon, you get a hair salon, you get a massage place or a different type of salon. Kind of in the business you expect the unexpected, and we find that it’s good not to wear blinders. If you’re looking for this two or three or four categories, then you’re not going to leave yourself open for the unexpected.

Hal Coopersmith: And so how does the unexpected find you?

James Famularo: Social media. Email blasts. SEO marketing. Do you know how social media marketing works?

Hal Coopersmith: Not entirely, but if you have any tips in terms of what you’re doing.

James Famularo: So if I’m advertising a space on social media, I could go to every male between the ages of 25 and 55 in the tri-state area. You know it’s going to wind up in your feed and it’s going to cost me $25 a day. And I can go in every male and female, 25 to 35 across the eastern seaboard, you know, and it’s going to come in your feed. And so maybe you’re not the one that’s actually looking for the space, but maybe at dinner tomorrow night, you’re going to be sitting with somebody and they’re going to bring up a conversation, Hey, I’ve been looking for a space on 54th and Lex and I just, I can’t find it anywhere. Hey, I just saw this thing on my feed and why didn’t you call this guy? You know, a lot of times it happens like that

Hal Coopersmith: And you’ve had a lot of experience in your career. You’ve grown to be successful as an agent. What do you think you are doing that other brokers are not doing?

James Famularo: I mean, that’s a very long list.

Hal Coopersmith: We have time.

James Famularo: I’m much like your father, the way you explained it to me briefly. You know, I’m always available for business. I don’t think a lot of brokers do that. I will go to any lengths and fly to any state or country to service in an account. You know, a lot of brokers don’t look at it the same way. I don’t look at a transaction, for how much money I could make. It’s servicing an account again and once you don’t associate, a client or a deal to a monetary value, things change and your reputation is you close deals, a lot of them all the time, and you want that reputation to continue and grow and you got to close more deals.

Hal Coopersmith: And so when you are working on a deal. There’s a tricky situation. You have an example of, Hey, you know, I was able to help bridge this gap. Some sort of tricky situation. I’m sure there are a lot of them, but one that you can think of.

James Famularo: There’s so many. I mean, I can’t tell you how many times two attorneys bump heads and their egos are getting involved. And, you know, maybe one works for a big white shoe law firm and one a smaller boutique firm from Queens and you know, this guy is trying to overcompensate or whatever. And maybe it’s my, just my perception of what’s going on, but I get involved and I ask for an issues list and ask to set up a conference call and go issue by issue and see if we can resolve or compromise or you know, if something is really contentious and we we’re not able to resolve, maybe put that on the side and hopefully at the end of that long list of issues, we can swap one for the other and get the lease execution, copies of the lease circulated and DocuSign it or you know, just finish it and move on to the next one.

Hal Coopersmith: So throughout the course of your career. I’m sure you’ve become very familiar with a lot of the issues that are common. What are you seeing now as issues in terms of the transactions that you and your team are working on? What’s kind of a common thread for an issue that has kind of become a stopping block?

James Famularo: I mean, the guarantee is a big issue a lot of the time. You know, the landlord will want a three or four year lockout period. Tenant initially wants no lockout period, but we over time convinced him of a one or two year lockout period. As long as there’s reimbursements, it’s kind of irrelevant, you know? That’s done over a course of emails and conference calls and if the tenant really wants the space and the landlord wants to monetize the space, we get through it and we get to the finish line.

Hal Coopersmith: Lockout period, meaning a period of time where the guarantor cannot exercise the good guy guarantee.

James Famularo: Exactly. Yeah.

Hal Coopersmith: So, one of the things that you’ve done in your career now is that you now have a team. How many people are on your team right now?

James Famularo: I couldn’t give you an exact count, but I could say it’s probably around 55.

Hal Coopersmith: Are all 55 agents or you have operations, you have marketing?

James Famularo: No, that’s 55 agents in various stages of their career. Some senior, some like, a few years under their belts and a good deal of them new in our training program.

Hal Coopersmith: And so what is it like managing a team like that, as it’s continued to grow?

James Famularo: You know, it’s like shoveling, against the tide, you know, there’s good days and bad days and you just got to roll with the punches and train people. And some people take to it a lot quicker than others. Some people are just exceptional and some people just don’t get it, you know, for various reasons.

Hal Coopersmith: What percentage of your time is working slash leading the team versus, you know, working on the matters that you have in front of you and the clients that you have in front of you?

James Famularo: So, thankfully I have a manager that really runs the training program and he deals with a lot of the day-to-day issues. And then I have my own team that I manage. So I would say 25 to 30% of my day is dealing with the agents and the issues that come up. And the balance of my day is just dealing with deals, and attorneys and landlords and working out problems.

Hal Coopersmith: And the training program, I don’t think, you know, correct me if I’m wrong, didn’t start on day one.

James Famularo: It didn’t.

Hal Coopersmith: How did you develop a training program? What did you think, you know, were all the elements that go into it?

James Famularo: So initially when we first started in 2018, we’d hire 10 people and eight or nine of them would be gone within the first four or five weeks.

Hal Coopersmith: What did you do to them in the first four or five weeks?

James Famularo: Nothing. That was the problem. You know, a lot of these kids are coming from college and they’re used to a classroom setting and some guidance, and they had none of that. So they’re like, looking at the computer, looking at the phone, and they’re like, what do I do? And I’m in the conference room with clients working out this last minute details of a deal, and they need guidance. So, you know, and it happened a couple of times until we figured out if we don’t have a training program and a manager to really cultivate them and train them on, you know, all the whole process of canvassing and pitching and,  role play on the phone and learning about attorneys and leases and boiler plates and riders and guarantees. You know, it’s kind of intimidating, you know, right from school right out to the business world. So we developed a training program and it’s organically from first point in contact or canvassing or referral to how to pitch for the business and how to market and how to write an LOI and how to work with an attorney and the closing process. Everything from A to Z. And it’s about a 36 class, three per week. We do it usually Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. And after we graduate, everybody, they get a diploma. And you know, we have this graduation and that totally reversed, like we hire 10 people and we keep like eight or nine now, you know? Because there’s always attrition in the business, but it’s a lot less once you train them and cultivate them, spend time with them. It just, I don’t have the time. So that’s why we had to hire a manager.

Hal Coopersmith: And what was that process like developing the training program? Just take it from square zero. Hey, alright, here’s the pain point. We’re losing people. Let me write down all the steps that, like how do you get James’ mind, you know, into a program?

James Famularo: Well, again, it was a long process and you know, I just had this epiphany one day and I said, you know what? We’re just going to keep losing people and we’re going to go like nowhere very quickly until we developed this program. So I thought to myself, well, how am I going to put a training program together? I never put something like this together in my life. So I said, you know what? How about, I put this together organically, the same way you learn, right? The first point of contact, and then the LOI or the pitching for the business and you know, the research that’s involved and, step by step until the finish line. And then after you get this lease signed, you go through the whole marketing process and go to traded talk to the press if you have permission, as long as the NDAs aren’t signed and you have the clearance to do so, and then that sparks more business. So it’s like a cycle. But once you get used to it, you know, the first one or two or three times is little different you know, you’re not used to it, but after you get going and you close deals, it just becomes second nature like anything else.

Hal Coopersmith: Why do you think more people don’t have training programs?

James Famularo: Like I said, it was tough to figure out, and at that point, I probably had 18, 19 years under my belt. At this point I have probably 26 years under my belt. So it’s a lot of experience and a lot of training that went involved, you know, the making of me that went into the program.

Hal Coopersmith: And you mentioned that after this training program. You increase retention, which is obviously successful. What do you think what are you looking for when you’re looking at an agent? What are you seeing, maybe if they’re not a new hire as successful traits for agents? We kind of talked about that. What are you doing that other agents are doing, but what are you seeing, you know, maybe even before they start or as they’re kind of progressing in their career.

James Famularo: Most applicants come directly from college and what I look for is somebody that was doing something competitive, you know, if they were in a sport or chess or tennis or football, lacrosse, basketball, anything that kind of nurtured their competitive spirit over the years. And a lot of my guys are wrestlers or basketball players and some runners and they bring that competitive sportsman, good sportsman team playing into our industry and see the synergies.

Hal Coopersmith: Where do you see, I mean, I heard you talk about adoption of technology. You talked a little bit about some of the systems that you’re using, before going on air and even on air. Hey, here’s a training program. What are some of the systems that are maybe low tech that you’re using? I’d call a training program, somewhat low tech, maybe it’s high tech, but that’s a system and high tech, to kind of stay competitive and grow. Where do you kind of see the systems that you’re building going?

James Famularo: So, I mean, look, I came in the industry in 99 and, in 99 people were just beginning to have computers on everybody’s desk. I remember my first interview, there was just phones on everybody’s desk phones and a pad and a pen. That’s it. And you’d call people and write down some information and then fax them information. And then maybe six months, a year after I was learning, they started introducing computers on everybody’s desk. And so I came in during a transitional period, so that’s what helped me adapt to new technology. I learned that way to adapt. So, I adapted to social media as soon as, and embraced it as soon as it really came online. Same with ChatGPT and Salesforce and other technologies. Any technology that comes out, I’m going to explore it and if I see a use for it, I’m going to embrace it and introduce it to my team.

Hal Coopersmith: And what do you think makes an effective technology for your team?

James Famularo: Anything that helps what we do as I mentioned earlier, ChatGPT, when it first came online, I wondered how we can use it. And then very quickly we started using it to manipulate pictures, when you can’t get certain angles, to populate lists for categories that we’re going after and targeting and I’m sure there’s many other uses because it’s really, its stage one now. So as the technology advances, so will the uses that we have for it and it remains to be seen.

Hal Coopersmith: Why do you think some brokers shy away from social media?

James Famularo: You know what, it’s an interesting question. I think, most people in my age category, you just hate it and don’t want anything to do with it. And then I find like, the people in their high twenties and thirties embrace it and they post and utilize the technology. But the younger kids, my kids are 17 and 18 and they don’t use Instagram or Facebook. They use Snapchat, which I’ve never found a use for and TikTok a little bit, which I know a lot of people are using. I’m not using that. I mainly focus on Instagram for the promotions and advertisements and I find a good ROI with Instagram. And again, I leave my mind open to, you know, finding new ways to use different technologies.

Hal Coopersmith: So Instagram success, that’s the stuff that you’re posting yourself and also paid advertising?

James Famularo: Both, yeah. And my graphics team from the office.

Hal Coopersmith: Do you have a good Instagram success story?

James Famularo: A bunch. Yeah. When I post something, or my office posts something for me, you know, I’ll get between 10 and 30 direct messages or inquiries, and I’ll forward it over to my team and they’ll show the space and field offers and like nothing specific, but we get a lot of inquiries and when you’re on a landlord’s side, you have to produce results and you can’t use one medium like CoStar or LoopNet or email blasting or relationships that you cultivated. You know, they want to see weekly reports with a lot of content. You can’t make the content up, you know? How about if they ask you to see the response or, so the only way you’ll get that full content to keep the landlords satisfied, until you get a signed lease, is to give them enough content every week.

Hal Coopersmith: Do you have any advice for giving a pitch to a landlord?

James Famularo: You know, every pitch is very unique and very different and I find my best pitches when you walk into the meeting and you do a little research, but go in blank slate. And some landlords are going to want to get to know you. And get personal or talk sports or talk politics. Some just want to get down to business and they want to know the data and what’s at least in the area and what’s on the market in the area. And you have to have that information handy because they don’t want to wait for it and they want it immediately. And if you don’t know, then you’re probably not going to get the assignment.

Hal Coopersmith: Well, that is a great note to end things on. James Famularo, thank you for being a part of Broker’s Angle.

James Famularo: Thank you for having me.