If you have visited, or even driven by, a mall or shopping center recently, you know exactly what an anchor tenant is. It’s the Walmart or Target that stands sentry and pulls in visitors. It’s the grocery store, the JC Penney’s, or the Macy’s that adds big-brand appeal. Anchor and shadow anchor tenants have a powerful impact on commercial properties like retail centers.

3 Benefits of Anchor Tenants

Anchor tenants are the most prominent or largest stores in a mall, shopping center, or other retail hub. As mentioned, box stores, grocery chains, and department stores are often anchors. Before we get into the benefits of anchor tenants, let’s clear up another term: shadow anchor.

Here, the anchor store is not strictly part of the shopping center. For example, Target owns most of its stores. In this case, it is the shadow anchor. The benefits, though, are much the same, so let’s get to it. 

1. Anchor tenants draw customers into the shopping center – and even the surrounding area. For example, people come to get the essentials at Walmart or the grocery store. Then they stay and shop the other retailers. This is especially great news for mom-and-pops.
2. These brands also draw other tenants into the location. They know they can leverage the size and name of an anchor tenant in order to increase visibility and sales.
3. Big name brands help boost the credibility of tenants that are lesser known. Essentially, it allows other retailers to “borrow” on the name of the anchor.

Anchor and shadow anchor tenants have an exceptionally large impact on the success of an investment. Attracting a big name increases foot traffic, makes the location itself more desirable, and attracts other tenants. 

To learn more about the benefits of anchor tenants, and how to attract them, contact Belmont Associates.