The Chandler James Team at Lee & Associates

00:00Sharpies Bakery is a locally owned and family operated wholesale bakery, providing bread to Nashville's best eateries. They've been operating in Nashville since 1986, providing high quality fresh bread daily for restaurants, catering companies, hospitals, and universities. Their bread is free from preservatives and artificial additives. Learn more at sharpies.com. That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S.com. Or you can give Erin Mosso a call directly. Her number is 615-319-6453. That's Sharpies Bakery. Y'all, today we are talking, as always, about SuperSource. And you know, one cool thing about SuperSource is did you know that they develop most of their cleaning products and chemicals in their in-house facility? They're environmentally conscious and only use dyes that are safe for the employees and the environment. They carry a number of products for keeping your dishes, flatware, surfaces, floors, restrooms, laundry, basically your entire facility clean, bright, and smelling and feeling new.

01:10This is just one of the many reasons SuperSource is taking over this city for dish machine and chemicals. You need to call Jason Ellis. His number is 770-337-1143. And he would love it if you would give him a call and let him come down and just check out your operation, meet him, say hi, see if there's any way he can help. He is here to help you succeed. That's Jason Ellis with SuperSource, 770-337-1143. ["The Tastiest Hour of Talk in Music City"] Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Super excited today to welcome in Leanne James and Miller Chandler to Nashville Restaurant Radio. Welcome, folks. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having us. And excited to have Crystal, the Luna Bogan here with us today.

02:12I'm here in studio live. So we're excited because you guys are sponsors of the show. And every time that we talk about the Chandler James team over at Leanne Associates, I've never purchased a real estate. I've never purchased a spot to own like myself. I've never done that. And so there's some things I'm just curious about and I'm really excited to have you guys in because I have so many questions for you. But I think we should start off and just kind of tell us a little about yourselves. Okay. So I'm Leanne James and I have been in and around real estate most of my life. My grandmother always loved real estate and was investing. And then I moved to New Jersey and got into real estate officially and got my license and worked with Cushman and Wakefield and did lease admin and did some corporate accounts with FedEx and AT&T and Lucent. So that's how I got my start in the New Jersey market.

03:13And then my roots started pulling me back home to Tennessee and came back into my family business, which is grocery stores. Oh, I did. Okay, starting to make sense now. Yeah. We were talking about that earlier. Yeah, so I'm originally from West Tennessee Union City and my family business is E.W. James & Sons Supermarket. So continued with my real estate and just supplied it in that regard with our leases and build the suits and remodels and all of those things that go into a retail supermarket. And then also investments myself and have been in it ever since. And then in 2015 moved back to Franklin where my family is and started working at Collier's in retail investment sales. So investment sales just means you're buying commercial real estate as an investment. So and love it and have specialized in retail just because of the background and it just makes sense. And I love it and been doing it ever since. So it sounds like it's just a passion for you.

04:13It's just what you've done. You've always known, you're good at it and you love it. It's not work, it's just fun, yeah. I love it. And Miller, tell us about yourself. Well, my path was very different from Leanne's and probably the majority of commercial brokers out there. I was on a very different track. I was a health and fitness guy. I was an exercise physiologist for over a couple decades. Real estate was always the family business kind of running in the background. My dad was a residential broker. He was a builder, developer. So I grew up around it, but just kind of did my own thing. I was a fitness director and I taught college courses at Belmont and Lipscomb and Nashville State. I had a- On fitness? Yeah, like exercise, science, wellness. Nice. I see him at the gym. Every time I go to the gym, he's there. Do you? Yeah, we live like a mile apart from each other. So you guys gym buddies or just coincidental?

05:15Coincidental. Gym buddies. We see each other at the gym. We see each other, we say hi. He's dropping a hint that he might wanna be your gym buddy. I'm not like a gym buddy kind of a guy. Who is a gym buddy kind of guy? I don't know. I like to work out alone. I listen to music and every time I'm with somebody, I'm like, I really wanna do this set. Will you hurry up? Who's talking? I stop talking. Let's go, I'm here to work out, have a conversation kind of a thing, but in the hallway, it's a whole different story. Same, same. You go, you get in the zone, talk every now and then between sets. Yeah, it's a thing. So yeah, but then in 2018, I don't know, just started taking interest in my parents' properties. They had some commercial property in Springfield, Tennessee. I grew up in Springfield and decided, this is pretty cool. Like, where has this been all my life? It's almost like this is in my blood. Yeah, it's almost like that. It's almost like my parents were doing this. So then I got licensed in 2020 and I mentioned I had a corporate wellness business and Parks Realty was one of the company's accounts.

06:19And I was familiar with their corporate culture and really liked what Bob Parks did. So I thought, well, I'll just hang my license there. I learned very quickly that I have more of an affinity for commercial real estate than residential and Parks is a residential firm. Leanne and I connected with her background. You know, that really made sense. How did you guys meet? We were introduced through Zach Brickner, right? Yeah, and I left Colliers because I was having to commute downtown. I live in Franklin. And so I just put my license at a residential firm, which was closest to my home. So that's how I ended up at Parks and thinking I might do a little bit of residential, but just kept getting pulled back into commercial. And it was fun because it was a little bit of everything coming out of a residential firm. So it was fun. And that's how I got to Parks and that's how I met Miller. So that was three years ago, roughly. At first I was in the West Nashville office and she was in the Franklin office.

07:19But then I moved to Franklin so we could work more closely together. And we were the only commercial team at Parks Realty. And we decided like we really needed to move to a commercial firm to do what we were doing because all the resources and everything it's set up for residential really. Then we started talking to Jim Rodriguez and William Sisk at Lee & Associates around this time last year. And then made the decision to move to Lee. They wanted us to come there to focus on retail. That's a primarily industrial shop. Yeah, and we made a really great decision there. Oh yeah, and one other thing that I did during my career pivot is from the jump, I was involved in CCIM. I was just about to ask, you guys are both wearing pins on your lapels here. We're very proud of these pins. That say CCIM, what does that mean?

08:22People jokingly call these the $10,000 piece of jewelry. It's kind of like a master's degree for commercial real estate. There's a core curriculum that you take. There's a couple of electives. You turn in a portfolio of actual deals that you've done. And this all culminates with a six hour proctored exam. It's one of the most nerve wracking experiences of my life. I don't know about yours, Leanne, but you show your ID when you leave and go back in if you're gonna take a break. Anyway, we did that in September in Houston. Yeah, and I earned an MBA from Vanderbilt and I think this was more stressful and rigorous than that. Wow, so you really do wear these with pride. We do, we do, yes. Kind of like the sommelier pin. It's like, there's a whole thing. You wear it and it's like, I did the class, I did the whole course.

09:24I'm a level one, I'm a song, it's a whole thing. Very nice. Yeah, so September 30th, we passed our exam. And then we're able to celebrate with our fellow CCIMs. Only 5% of commercial brokers have this designation. This and S-I-O-R, the two main advanced certifications. So it helped me a lot just going through that curriculum and making the career transition. I love that. Okay, so I wanna get to the meat and potatoes of this. Now we know who you are. We know what you're doing, how you guys met, where you're at, the whole thing. Just starting off, just a simple question. Most of your clients, to lease or to own? Do most of your clients lease the properties or do most clients own the properties? And what do you recommend? Does it matter? The answer is, it depends. So yeah, and that's one of the things that we do for our clients is we look at what your needs are, what your wants are, what your long-term goals are, and what makes most sense for your business and the longevity of your business.

10:34Sometimes it makes sense to rent and it aligns more with your goals. And then other times, it might make sense to buy and it may be a long-term great investment, tax savings, all the things to go ahead and buy. So we take a holistic approach and look at your financial situation, your long-term goals, your business goals, and the properties that are available, where they are, and help you analyze that to make the best decision. I have a question. So who are some of the restaurant groups or restaurants you guys have worked with in town? Because that's like, I mean, my goal as a restaurant owner is to own my property. That's what I think my goal is because of just not understanding how much rent we pay and how much that could break us or make us. But so who are some of the clients you guys have helped find their restaurant spaces? You know, it can make a lot of sense to own property.

11:35One of the great things about commercial real estate is you get appreciation and depreciation. So you can be on a schedule and spread out, it's a 39-year schedule, but each year it helps you with your taxes because in theory that asset is, you know, it's in decline, right? You know, so you take off a little bit each year, but we all know if you ever were to sell that asset, it's not gonna be lower in value. So, you know, they're just, they're good reasons. I mean, it's really the best investment I think there is. But also if you're renting, you can write off your rent. Yeah, a hundred percent. A hundred percent. Well, it's interesting, because I had a sales guy come in to me the other day and he was like the best salesman I've ever met. He's also the worst salesman I've ever met because he knew his product so well, but he just wanted to tell me everything about it. He was just vomiting everything about this product.

12:36And I was like, none of that makes sense for me. None of that makes sense for my business and what we do. I can see where it's cool, but we already do a lot of that. There were bits and nuggets of it that I thought was great, but he wasted 30 minutes of my time. If you would have asked the questions and said, tell me what are your needs around these things and ask the questions to listen to what we needed, he could have answered those things with, but I had to sit through 10 minutes of him explaining all the stuff that he does. And it's like, I don't need, okay. I said like four words the entire time. He's like, so can I sign you up? And I'm like, no, I'm sorry. I need to learn more and I don't have any more time. Like I didn't have any more time for him. And I was like, I have another meeting I have to go to, but I don't know what I need because he didn't say, what's best for you? What do you need? And I love that that's a real thing. That's more acting like a consultant versus somebody who's trying to sell something. I think that's a major part of real estate is learning from your clients what they need and what best suits them before making recommendations.

13:45And I love that you said that. It always depends, right? That's the most popular answer in commercial real estate. You asked who we work with. High Point Coffee, that's a brand we're working with out of Oxford, Mississippi. They're in 17th and Grand. Oh wow. We represented them on that deal in Midtown. Just think, we do a lot of retail and restaurant. It's funny, we've had quite a few fitness clients we've worked with. So that's kind of goes with my background. I bet you connected with that. Yeah. There's a bar, Grandpa Bar in the Marathon Village area. Yeah. Mike Rosenthal, we're working on getting him his first restaurant restaurant right now. And he's just an extremely savvy guy, has a great restaurant background, would love for him to get on this show at some point. And then we're starting to work with a group right now that you would definitely recognize them, but they probably wouldn't appreciate it going out.

14:49Talking about what they're doing. They have this new secret location we're working on. That's a major announcement right now. But one with multiple concepts. So we've got another coffee concept we're working with too. Yeah, another double-sided drive-through concept. So yeah, we've done some coffee. So if I come to you and I say, Crystal and I are gonna open Nashville Restaurant Coffee Bar. Okay. I'm not a full shot. This is a hypothetical. And I said, we wanna do a triple drive-through and we wanna own the property, but we wanna be in this, do we come to you and you say, what part of town do you wanna be in? Do you, what's your budget? What are the questions you would ask me? Yeah, so I think we start with that. Where do you wanna be? What kind of demographic are you targeting? Yeah, is car traffic important? Foot traffic? What kind of density do you want?

15:50Yeah, how many square feet? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, do you need? I mean, we found out through four locations what we needed. We were like, okay, minimum we need. 1700 max, we don't need to go over, because we're fast casual. So we don't need, we turn seats faster. So we don't need that average kind of dining room that everyone else has where they need to sit and stay for a while. So we kind of found our sweet spot at around 2000 square feet. Like even like we looked at a 3000, it was too much for us. So when you know that, you know you don't have to pay for that. And it gives your broker and like, okay, I know how to, if something comes through my desk, I can easily, you know, I know who to call. And that's such a valuable relationship for a restaurateur to have, is to have someone they can call and be like, hey, I'm looking in this area and then it's gonna come through you guys first.

16:51It's not gonna come, I'm not gonna find these things out, you know. It's rare that we see a for rent or for to own sign and that's how we get our restaurants. It's usually through people like you that come to us with, hey, we got the spot. You guys have to see it and it meets all your needs. So that's like advice I always give people. I'm like, you need to have a good attorney, your real estate brokers and you need to have a good accountant. Like those are the three people on your team that are invaluable. That is great advice for sure, yeah. Yes, absolutely. And it's very helpful when operators know exactly, like you said, you know, I know I need 2000 square feet. That's very helpful. But a lot of times you're not quite sure and we can help walk folks through that too and figure out exactly what you need. I love that. So let's get back to my hypothetical Nashville restaurant coffee shop. The coffee shop that we're opening together. This is very exciting. We need a podcast studio right in the middle that's gonna be enclosed in glass so people can watch us like a fish bowl, right?

17:52Very specific. So, but also here's the crazy thing. We're based in Atlanta. We have Atlanta restaurant coffee shop right now and we love it. So now we're coming to it. Nashville, we wanna open in Nashville. We don't know. We don't know Nashville. We hear it's really cool. Yeah, we know Broadway. Here's my question for you. What's like, this is a two parter. What's the most overrated part of town? I keep hearing about the Gulch. Do we need to be in the Gulch? And you know, what is the most underrated part of town? We're making it the most value in the Bell Hill. And they're very good job by you. Brandon made that up. Do you know about Bell Hill? He made that up. Bell Hill is where Chow goes. We're in Bell Hill. Okay, okay. I think there's already a triple sided concept over there. Right where they just drive right through. Drive right through the middle of it. They don't even stop in the restaurant. They just keep going. Amerigo sometimes is that way. West End and 1920 West End. Cars drive into that bar all the time for some reason. It's a whole thing. So what are the overrated parts of town and what are some of the underrated parts of town where you might get the most value?

18:58Right now in Nashville as we speak. Do you know those things? You know. If they don't know, then we definitely don't know. I would say, you know, if I had to single out one part of town as being quote, overrated. At What Chefs Want, they deliver the seven most needed product lines to meet the unique needs of chefs and restaurateurs. From local to global and from staple items to gourmet rarities, they have the variety of products to cover all of your needs. Produce, seafood, meats, gourmet, staples, to-go, and dairy. At What Chefs Want, they're transforming food service by eliminating minimum orders, offering split cases and providing daily deliveries with 24-7 customer support. This means chefs have the flexibility to order what they need when they need it. Experiment with new ingredients and keep their kitchens consistently stocked with fresh supplies.

19:59It's all about empowering culinary creativity while streamlining operations. Check them out at whatchefswant.com or give them a call at 800-600-8510. Hi, this is Matthew Clements, Robins Insurance Agency. We care about ensuring the hospitality industry. We wanna make sure that you're taken care of and that we take one less stressor off your plate so you can sleep well at night. At the end of the day, when you purchase an insurance policy, you're really purchasing peace of mind, and we want to showcase that and how we operate within the hospitality space by giving back to the giving kitchen. If you call today to ask for a quote, we will be sure to give $50 in your name to the giving kitchen. Just give me a call. Area code 863-409-9372. We specialize in ensuring the hospitality space and we wanna be sure to give back. We look forward to hearing from you. You know, if I had to single out one part of town as being quote, overrated, you know, I would have to say 12 South.

21:04Ooh. I like 12 South a lot. We have feelings about 12 South. It's a great- Go ahead, speak on it. It's a great retail area. A lot of people really wanna be there. We just did a deal there within the past year and our client wanted to be there. 12 South. They wanted to be in 12 South and we got them there. The thing is though, the average asking rent, triple net, which means, you know, you've got your rent and then you're also paying the insurance and you're paying the common area maintenance. Your taxes. Your taxes. So, you know, it adds up. The triple net asking 12 South right now is 140. Square foot. 140 to 160 per square foot. So the average in the Nashville MSA is 25. Oh my gosh. Okay. And you can go to other nice parts of town and it'll be high thirties to mid fifties. That's 140.

22:04Well, this is where you, this is Josephine in mafiosas, like that you hear, dude, we were here a long time ago. And our rent was this. And now it's gone up. No wonder. Yeah. You can't sustain that as a restaurant. Right, right. So it's not that it isn't nice. It's just, you know, that is it's sustainable. Yeah. That is out of control. Okay. So that is an overrated part of town in your opinion. And I think that there's some facts that support that. Let's go under rate it now. Let's go to that spot that people might not know about that that is really the place you need to be. I think there's a lot to be said for Midtown. Okay. There's a lot of new development in the works and it'll be coming online in the future. There's going to be a lot of growth as far as, you know, multifamily and folks moving to that area. So I think that would be a place that definitely want to check it out. Really? Midtown. No doubt. Midtown is underrated. Still, still some value to be found there. You can get a decent per square footage.

23:05I wouldn't think, I feel like it's so dense and like congested there. There's some really cool new developments going in there. So there's going to be a lot of growth. I mean, we're close to that area. But you heard it here first guys. This is it. This is the information I want. And you're right, Crystal, you've got density there. I mean, you've got plenty of it. Plenty of people live there. I mean, we know we have all the Vanderbilt, Belmont people too. I mean, those are our kind of like, where we get business from, from our restaurants. We're in Hillsboro Village and you're in Bell Hill area. Bell Hill might be a little overrated too, I'm sorry. You heard it here first. Just kidding, I love the Bell Hill neighborhood. It's fantastic. Yeah, I mean, we thrive off of Vanderbilt and Belmont and the doctors at Vanderbilt. I mean, like those are our customers, families, but yeah, I mean, so lots of, okay. You've got the tourism there, music business, but you can still get into spots that, you know, in the forties, even high thirties, triple net.

24:07They won't last forever, but you still can. Wow. See, that's amazing. Okay, let's, thank you. That's really good intel. And now my next question, cause we're going to open this coffee shop. In Atlanta. No, in Nashville. Oh, we're from Atlanta. We're from Atlanta. We're coming to Nashville. We're just making these things up here as we go along. So tell me some things like if I'm a restaurateur, tell me some things that restaurateurs should keep in mind as he or she negotiates a lease agreement. What do I need to be cognizant of? Well, sorry. Yeah, it's my first time. We've hit on some good points already. Crystal, you mentioned an attorney and not just an attorney, a commercial real estate attorney. You want a specialist. We have that guy. You know, you want your broker to be a CRE, commercial real estate broker, and your attorney also to specialize there. So, and then you also mentioned, you don't want to be just driving around, looking at signs, trying to do it on your own. I mean, you want somebody who has the technology and the broker relationships and can really let you know that you've seen every viable choice.

25:18Do you have a recommendation? As far as brokers go. That was a layup. I'm sorry, I was right there. Maybe, maybe. Maybe you guys are raising your hand is available for that position. Me. We might have some things to say about that. I don't know. I like your glasses, Leanne, by the way. I'm just gonna go. Thank you. I have ADD, so this is what I do. Look, a squirrel. These may be from Dollar Tree. Oh, look at that. They're from where? I think they're from Dollar Tree. No, I think it's actually Dolaire Tray. Dolaire Tray. That's what it is. It's very nice. They're from this French place, Dolaire Tray. I know, I've heard about her. She's like, Dollar Tree, why would I spend more money? Yeah. See, so you're thrifty as well. See, you're not just frivolously out there spending money. You're gonna look for the deal. That's right. I can tell that about you. You can do the MBA background. People have, yes. I mean, I respect somebody who knows where to spend their money and where to save their money. So, thank you for that. Having a great broker is something definitely to keep in mind as you're looking for, because they're gonna answer all those questions that you need.

26:22This is the announcer voice coming in. A broker like the Chandler James team at Lee & Associates. Right, like such as. Such as, yes. All right. So, could any restaurant, say I'm a food truck owner and I'm looking for my first restaurant, is it realistic to call up your team and say, hey, I need help or do I need to get to a certain level of, I don't know, is that something that maybe you need to work with somebody who maybe has a bigger budget? We love working with folks like that, that are startups, that aren't quite sure what they need, that we can grow with them and help them grow and help them give them some intelligence in the market and where they should be going with their, help them align with their budgets. So, we work with food truck owners that are looking to rent parking lot space all the way up to major restaurant tours, anything and everything in between. So, yes, they should call us and we'd love to start working with them and grow with them.

27:27That's great, that's good to know because that seems kind of intimidating. Like, I wouldn't think I would be able to, like, I don't know, not afford it because obviously that's not how it works but it seems like, wow, that doesn't seem like that's something that I need yet. Like, it feels like that's something when you're going into two or three restaurants, you need a broker, you know? I think just for the person who doesn't realize that is something you need from the beginning. Yeah, and we're here to help and we get paid when we actually do a deal. So, it's not coming out of your pocket if we give just advice or direction or our opinions on certain things and we're happy to do that. Is it like a home sale where if I'm the person buying the house, I mean, a lot of times if you're finding a real estate agent, the seller pays the real estate agent and the seller pays the broker too or does the person who's buying the place also pay the broker? Typically, it's the seller or the landlord who pays the commission.

28:28Now, we do have in our docs, like, if for some reason we find a property that's just perfect other than, you know, we've got a landlord who doesn't wanna pay a commission, you know, we're guaranteed this, you know, 2%. Something of it. That's rare. Just so we got paid for the work but most of the time, it's the seller or the landlord who pays. Yeah. And they'll tell you that upfront too. That's not like something that's hidden till the very end and you find out. So essentially, if I'm just looking for a space, your services are basically free, right? If I'm the person who's purchasing the spot, you guys will do all this work for me for free. And I always thought I could just do real estate. I'm in the middle of a home transaction right now in my real estate agent, Maxwell Britton with LHI. A little shout out to Maxwell. He does a great job. But he does so many. We're talking on the phone. I think I know what I'm talking about because I'm savvy in some different ways. And he's like, well, actually I've talked to the person. I did this and I'm like, I never thought of, oh yeah, this is what you do.

29:29I forgot. Like you're doing this every day. You're thinking about things. I'm thinking about what I know. And when you're in this world every single day, there's so many little things. On this one deal I did, the guy did this and he bought down points and he did this. Like, I never thought about that. We could do more. Having that conversation with somebody who's a professional will open your eyes to so many possibilities that you sitting on the back deck with your spouse or your partner talking about what you can do. Talk with you guys. You're gonna get way more information and you can do that anytime. Like it makes so much more sense. I love that. All right, well, let's get back to Nashville. Coffee. Coffee company. Nashville restaurant coffee company. Yes. Podcast. So I'm moving. I wanna do this thing in Nashville, but I don't really know what the investment's like in Nashville. What do you feel like the real estate in Nashville is gonna do over the next few years? I mean, cause it's been so big and I know that the housing is, I hear that it's crazy and the interest rates are high and where do you see it going?

30:39Retail real estate in Nashville is hot to say the least. The vacancy rate is 3.1%. You take malls out of it. It's even lower. It's 2. something percent. So it is a tight, tight market and rents do keep going up. So I think if you have an advocate making sure not just that you get the right rent, but the terms, I mean, you're gonna have this lease five, seven, 10 years. I mean, you gotta, that's what governs everything. You know, it's what everybody signed. So, you know, we just need to find the right part of town for you that ticks all your boxes for your customer. If you don't know who your ideal customer is, we can even help with that with Placer AI and looking at psychographics and buying patterns, where they live, the true trade area of a particular corner and that sort of thing.

31:43That's the analytics you need. That's the analytics you need to know whether or not your business can be viable. Sure. And that's the stuff you gotta do. And you guys can provide that. Yeah, and as being a retailer myself, that's a game changer. You need that data. You need those analytics. You need that intelligence into those particular locations to make sure that your store's gonna, your restaurant's gonna be successful. Well, if it's a store or a restaurant, you can have a restaurant and store. Part of the coffee business we're gonna have, we're gonna have a retail side to it where we actually sell beans and t-shirts. This business is getting bigger. Are you getting excited about our new business venture, Crystal? And t-shirts and coffee mugs. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah, can we leave with some swag from the- Yeah, we're ordering it as we speak. Yeah. Oh yeah, we have swag back here. It's THC infused, but you can have some. It's back. Yeah, yeah. It's Friday. It's Friday when we're taping this, so yeah. Good stuff. This is awesome. Favorite suburbs in town. You said that Midtown was the next, like underrated and overrated.

32:45Where are your favorite places in town? Favorite suburb, what do you think? Well, I'm kind of partial to Franklin. I lived down there. I mean, she lived there. I lived down there, that's where I work and live. And I think there's a lot of fun things happening there. With the holiday properties he's done with the factory is phenomenal. I was just gonna ask you about the factory. I feel like there was an explosion of everybody opening there. We're trying to get in there. If you know anybody. We might be able to help you out. You're trying to get a grilled cheese ring in there? Yeah. I think they're the people to talk to. We've definitely talked to them and we've expressed our interest and they understand we are interested. So I think there's, but there's not a lot of vacancies. So that's the perfect spot for, we need a certain type of space. So we don't need like a full restaurant build out. So they were like, okay. I don't know why we're talking about Nashville Coffee Company. We got, we had a real example right here we could have been using.

33:46No, that's. So I won't be in the factory. That would stress me out too much. My husband would hear this. He'd be like, what are we talking about now? We're going public with a, we're gonna be opening in the factory soon. I just opened a restaurant like a few months ago. So it's like having a baby. I need to recover a little bit first and then I can start talking about number three. Oh, come on, Irish twins. That's what you want. I'm, do you see these bags under my eyes? I literally smell like grilled chicken right now. I just came from the kitchen. Yeah, I really want to get down to the frist and check out the new digs. The new Cafe Cheesery. Open now. Anytime that the museum is open, you're open. Yeah, we're open. And Journey Through Japan just opened in the main gallery. We have two galleries open right now, which is a big deal. Yeah, I love the frist. The frist is such a, it's so beautiful. And right now the trees are turning. Oh my God. There's been two engagements outside of our windows that we've been watching. Apparently it's a hotspot for asking someone to marry you.

34:48Perfectly in between the like autumn colored trees. So there's little perks of kind of being around. We're like, oh, we're so nosy. Like taking the windows. Yeah, it's pretty cool space. Probably the best part about being in the restaurant business is the little voyeuristic. You go to the table, it's like, what are we celebrating tonight? Oh, I'm all up in the business. Yeah, I have no shame. It's terrible, isn't it? All right, so if you guys weren't brokers, let's just take this off the table. You'd probably be in the grocery business or you'd be in real estate of some sort. You've talked about what you were gonna do, but let's just say if you weren't retailers, what type of property would most appeal to you? What other type of real estate practice could you imagine having and why? I wrote down some questions I wanted to ask you. I think, you know, I have a passion for travel, adventure travel, and I'm also a private pilot, so I think I would. Wait a minute, you've been burying this the whole time?

35:49What the hell is adventure travel? Like skydiving and stuff? No, like hiking and Kilimanjaro, Everest. Have you done Everest? I went to base camp, I didn't do, I didn't summit, but that was plenty for me, but yeah. How high is base camp? What's the elevation at base camp? I think it was like 5900 meters, whatever that is. 15,000, that's like a meter is like what? Longer than a yard. Yeah, I can't remember, I'd have to look at that. 6,000. We're Americans, we don't know. I don't remember. It's like 18,000, 19,000 feet. Kilimanjaro was harder and more intense than Everest base camp, so. Where is Kilimanjaro in Africa? My sister did that, she did the whole, she climbed to the top and did the, she did Kilimanjaro. I did it with my dad, it was wonderful. It's a good memory, yeah. She did Mount, my sister did Mount Fuji too and they almost died. Her and my dad did Fuji, yeah, and there was like a massive storm while they're up there and they were like all huddled in this one tent and they were like, this might be it kind of a thing.

36:51It was like, that sounds scary as hell. Oh my God, your dad's so cool, that's awesome. Makes for a good story, huh? Oh my God, father daughter date gone wrong. So adventure hiking. Yeah, yeah, I'm going to Patagonia in January, so looking forward to that. Oh my gosh, that's so cool. But with that being said, I think, and we're starting to work a little bit in the aviation real estate, so that's really cool and really fun. So I think that's kind of where. What's aviation real estate? Like FBOs, fixed space operators at airports, which is kind of like, you know, it's kind of like the convenience store of the airport where you go and get your gas and your stuff and yeah. Convenience store. I didn't even know this was a thing. It's retail. Yeah, it's retail. Kind of relates. If you can sell shit in it, we're there. Yeah. That's how much I don't know about it. That's a great way of putting it in practice. Yeah, that's our tagline. Yeah, you can sell shit, we're there. There's four walls and you sell shit. We will lease it to you. Chandler James is there.

37:51He's like, wow, Brandon, thanks for that. That's really not our demographic, thank you. So eloquent the way you put that. All right, now. Professionals and we're looking for on this podcast. That's awesome. How do you outdo this? Okay, what else would you? You know, I can't outdo that, of course, but I would say also related to retail is medical office. I'm interested in that. It's Nashville. Oh, that's so Nashville. There's a lot of that happening. And then in these retail centers, what do you often see? You see a walk-in clinic or a dental office. The dental office could be next to the little to go. Chiropractor. Restaurant, the chiropractor. The coffee shop. My chiropractor is next to a Mexican restaurant. Does it smell good when you're getting your back adjusted? Sometimes, depends on who was there before me. That's the perk. My first job when I was in culinary school was at a celebrity dentist.

38:55And so I worked in. But you? God, it's my pick up my daughter from the bus alarm, but she's not in school today because she will party too late, Halloween. Excuse me. That's why it's like a weird ring tone. She's five. Well, her girlfriends came over and they were eating candy in the other room and not telling anybody. They were just like shotgunning, like whatever the, they're like pixie sticks or something. I'm like, you would never, I would never buy you that. But like, you know, people just hand out candy. It's like, it's a weird thing. It's a weird thing, this day. Kids just walk up and they. I don't wanna go into this. You don't get me started. A bunch of 12 year olds stole all my candy. I don't wanna talk about it. I live off of Eastland. And if you know that area, it is a very highly congested trick or treat area, but I had candy and toys. Did you just leave the ball out front? Okay, I had to take Luna to the bathroom. So I left it out there because I didn't want them ringing the doorbell because it was freaking my cats out.

39:57It was gone. It was gone. They took like, I'm not kidding you, like a massive witch's little, you know, kettle thing. I was, I felt, they scored. They scored. Yeah. I'm gonna blast them with my ring camera. Like, have you seen these monster kids? Thugs. Yeah. The last house my kids went to, the guy was like on this cul-de-sac and it was like nobody had gone there because it was a cul-de-sac. Oh, score. And the guy was like, hey, I'm tired and nobody's come by so here and just emptied the entire basket into the two kids' things. And they're like, that was, yeah. They came back like, dude, he gave us the whole thing. I was like, that's what it's about. That's too easy. No, we were one. We were giving one piece to everybody. No, this was robbery. Sorry. Anyway. This is what we do sometimes. I apologize. It's just fresh. This was a fresh wound for me last night. Do you have a lot of kids come to your house? Yeah, I do. In every neighborhood has the king-size candy bar house, right, that makes us all, the rest of us not bad.

41:00Oh, that's not you? That's not us, no. But there's one street over, yeah. I can't do it yet, but yes, I'm trying to work up to it. Yeah, there's apps for that, I think. There's an app for you. Who has the full-size candy bars that you can immediately upload it. You ping it and so people know where to go. I think the houses that don't get a lot of trick-or-treaters get the, when you get hundreds of them, you can't do that, can you? I got so many. I had a black light going. Oh, we were like, we were a good house. As you said, don't get me started. We got her started. Well, you know, we're still basking in the post-Halloween glow, so it's understandable. I have a daughter that I'm grooming just to be like, you know, a boss. So she was like, we're open, like for sale. Like, you know, her language is very much like, my customers are. The shift has started. Yeah, the shift has started. We are on the clock. She was real serious, yeah, she was really serious about it. I need some teamwork out of you guys today. A little turbo boost. She asked to take a break. And this is a good lesson.

42:02When you take a break, people steal your shit. Yeah, never leave your post. Never leave your post. When you're not manning the post, people will come in and steal your stuff. Older children will take advantage of you, you see. This will happen. Every time. All right, so I want to get back to your adventure travel. You go up, do you ever go down? Do you really go below the water? Are you a scuba diver too? Yes, but I found the older I get, it's not as fun because I have a little bit of anxiety. I never had any anxiety when I was younger. What do you have anxiety about down there? Just like life. I think kids do that to you. When you have kids, you're like, you think through things a little bit more, yeah. Yeah, that's true. Oh yeah, you know, the children that depend on you. Yeah. You think about that. There's that, yeah. Brynn is like, I don't, so you just do whatever. No, I don't, none of that. Your wife Jen's going to be like, yeah, must be nice. She's not going to hear this. So what are we missing guys? What do we, what do I need to know? We we we're at the kind of our stopping point for our timeframe today. So the last thing that we do on the show is the Gordon food service final thought.

43:06I think this is a apropos time for you guys to highlight anything you missed or whatever you want to say. And I definitely want to get your contact information. Let's talk about how we get ahold of you right before we do that. What is your email phone? How would you like people, if somebody is like, man, I really liked what they said. I'd like to get ahold of them because I, I want to, I want to, I want to do this. Well, we've got a website and we've got, we're on social media. Miller's great at all that. What's our website? ChandlerJames.com. ChandlerJamesCRE.com. Yeah. Yeah. He's way better at that than I am. ChandlerJamesCRE.com. Yes. Okay. And you have an Instagram or? Oh yeah, we're on, we're on Instagram. We're on LinkedIn, Facebook, individually on X. So yeah, we're, we're out there. What kind of content are we going to see? If I go follow you, what do we got? What do we got? Pictures of Kilimanjaro or do we have like, we should have new places? I'm terrible at that.

44:08Good content. You need to send her with a social media manager. Yeah, she, exactly. We need to get her and the social manager together. For sure. Yeah. But you'll, you'll just see kind of what we're doing in real estate and you know, there's some educational stuff and- Trends, facts and figures. Yeah, what's happening in Nashville. We put our quarterly report out there that has all the information on retail. Oh, that's, that's valuable. That is very valuable. Yeah. I didn't, I didn't. I need to go, I'm going to go follow them right now. Send us an email, you can send us an email at, my email's ljames at lee-associates.com and we can put you on our mailing list for our quarterly newsletter. And then if anybody's looking for or think you're going to be looking, just reach out to us and, and let's start a conversation and start understanding what you're looking for, what you need, what your future goals are. And we can help you navigate all that. ljames at lee-associates.com. Right. M Chandler, C-H-A-N-D-L-E-R at lee-associates.com.

45:12That's it. You got it. Right, that is, you get to, and now when you guys work together, what do you, is it, are you a specialist in one area? You're a specialist in one area. Why am I getting two people? Do I need two people? I'm more focused on the leasing side, but we're, but we're both involved in that. And Leanne with her background, you know, in investment sales is what, what she loves the most. Yeah, and we collaborate and talk about, you know, all of our deals together. So yeah, you are getting two for one thing. Two for one. And that's a hell of a deal. I mean, I do think you have one person, you have two people who are going to take all of your ideas. They're going to consult with you. They're going to go back and they're going to go, Hey, do you have an idea for this? I do, to get two people for the price of one. And the cool thing with being at Lee & Associates now is it's a larger network. So if we're working with someone and they've got a location in Nashville and they really want to be in Atlanta, then we can reach out to our team in Atlanta. So we can also have a location in Atlanta where we came from. Well, that's how we opened Atlanta restaurant coffee company. Don't forget your Atlanta roots.

46:13We want to stay true to those. So there's an office in Atlanta. Yeah, Lee & Associates has- That's where I got that triple drive-through going. It's really nice. They did a fantastic job. What does that look like? A triple drive-through. Have you ever seen like a slide at a water park? It's similar. There's a walk-up window. It's like, but you have to, it's like you drive a bike through it. Only on a bike. We're going to have to have a board to think about this. Yeah, there are 76 offices around North America. So if you have a particular city you want to be in, we may have a Lee & Associates office there. Love it. Very valuable. Final thoughts, Lee Ann, whatever you want to say is as long as you want to say it. Gordon Food Service, final thought. The mic is yours. I just think if you're looking for some commercial real estate space or investment sales, want to find an investment, give us a call and let's just start the conversation. Let us help you achieve your goals. Second that and want to piggyback on what she was saying about what a collaborative office we have and whatever your needs are.

47:20Even if we're not the right fit for that particular thing, maybe it's not exactly retail or restaurant, but you know someone else who has commercial real estate needs. We've got people in our shop. We can work the deal with them or pass it off. Yeah, if you're looking for some industrial space that's not quite our expertise, we know exactly where to point you in the right direction to get you with the best professional. Sure do. The thing I think that most people are a place where a lot of dreamers are is they have this idea. I have an idea, but there's a bunch of gaps. I don't know what this means or what that means or what this means. If I just, if I don't want to, I'm not ready to do it today, but I want to write a business plan and maybe in the next couple years, but I don't know how leases work and how the taxes work and how, could I email you and just have like a consultation and kind of go, hey, look, I'm not quite ready yet, but I don't know how to do this. Can you help me answer some of the questions in my head?

48:22Yeah, we'd love to hear from you because we can kind of set you up to be thinking about the proper things and start getting your business plan in order and start getting your pitch deck to potential landlords ready. They're going to want to look and see your financial statements. So start getting that in order. So we can. And why that's important. Why all that's so important. What are the individual things in your financial statements that you might need to get in order without pressure? If you have an investor or if you're going out to a bank, you're going to need this information anyways. That's right. So even you're going to have to have knowledge from a broker to even get a potential loan or a potential investor, a smart investor that maybe isn't your family, you know, that is going to actually want to see a deck. That's right. So, I mean, we've had to, we've put those together multiple times with help from a broker. Like we can't, I don't know, I don't even know. I can't even tell you how I would have done that without it. So the amazing resources for anybody out there, it doesn't have to be, I'm ready to do this. Sometimes you're a visionary and you have an idea, but you can't, you didn't go to business school and you need to learn some of this stuff.

49:26You guys are willing to sit and have those conversations with people as well. Yeah, we want to grow with our clients. Yeah. That's a fun and that's how you build success is you have those relationships with people and you know that you trust somebody who wants you to succeed. I can feel everything. All my conversations with you guys and all the times I've talked to Miller, there's a genuine side of, I just want to help people win. I want to help people. And that's, it's a fun business to be in when that's what you do. You know, for us in the restaurant business, I just want you to enjoy your experience. You know, I want you to have amazing experience while you're here and doesn't, you don't have to buy the most expensive thing. You don't have to, as long as you leave here and you feel whole and you're happy, then I'm really good with it and just come back another time and let's do it again. So thank you guys for joining us today. This was a lot of fun. I learned a lot today. I learned a lot. And we're going to talk about the Nashville Restaurant Coffee Company and gift shop. Oh my God. This is done after this podcast. I kind of want it to be a pet store also.

50:26Is that weird? It's the smell. I don't see why not. It's going to smell. Experiential is in. And it's going to, it's too many things. You guys are amazing. Thank you for everybody who's been watching us live out there on all of the networks. We are live right now. So we're about to end that live stream. You guys look really cool. You guys look fantastic. Thank you guys for joining us and we will see you guys again soon. Thanks. Thanks. All right, so no intro today. We are just here talking with Miller Chandler and Leanne James and what a fun conversation. I really appreciate both of them for coming in and sharing all of their knowledge with us today. Seriously, if you're looking for a place, give them a call. They're not only sponsors, they're friends. They care. They absolutely care. It's cool to care. And they do. And it's one of those things that as a business owner, you care very deeply about what you're doing. Sometimes employees and everybody that you work with doesn't care as much as you.

51:27These guys care as much as you do about finding you the right spot. And I love that about them. I also want to tell you somebody else who cares and that's Gordon Food Service. These guys are amazing. They genuinely care about your success. And that's one of the big differentiators with them is that they do what they say they're gonna do. And I love them. And I don't do enough ads for Gordon Food Service because they're the presenting sponsor and they're amazing. So thank you to all those people. I know we've had a crazy past couple of weeks where the election is over and I'm really excited because the holiday season starts now. Here we go. Thanksgiving's coming up in a couple of weeks, the week after next. And it's a big one heading into the holiday season. We're wishing everybody luck and excitement. And we just thank you for listening. We're gonna keep coming at you with some more episodes coming up soon, but no intro this week, a little bit of an outro. And we want you to be safe out there.

52:28And again, love you guys. Bye-bye.