Justin Stein is the Executive Vice President of Leasing at Tanger, where he has played a key role in shaping the company's leasing strategy and enhancing its merchandising mix across the portfolio since joining in October 2021. Under his leadership, Tanger has strategically activated peripheral land, introduced a diverse range of new tenants, and elevated the quality of its food and beverage offerings. His forward-thinking approach has helped drive Tanger's evolution into the full-price channel, complementing its outlet portfolio with high-traffic lifestyle centers and mixed-use developments.
Before joining Tanger, Justin spent 10 years at Simon Property Group as Senior Vice President of Leasing, where he consistently ranked among the top performers and was recognized for his innovative, results-oriented approach to dealmaking. He built strong, lasting relationships with retail partners, earning a reputation as one of the industry's most influential leasing executives. Prior to Simon, Justin held leadership positions in retail brokerage, serving as Managing Director of Retail at Newmark, CBRE, and Cushman & Wakefield, with more than eight years of experience advising major national retail brands.
Justin holds a B.S. in Computer Information Systems from Bryant University and a Master of Science in Information Systems from Stevens Institute of Technology.
Insights from Justin Stein on Retail Real Estate Innovation
With over two decades in retail real estate, Justin Stein brings a unique perspective on how the industry has transformed—and where it's heading next. As Executive Vice President of Leasing at Tanger, he's been instrumental in the company's evolution from a legacy outlet operator to a dynamic, diversified portfolio of open-air shopping centers that blend outlet and full-price retail with experiential destinations.
In this episode of The Dealmakers' Edge, Justin shares how Tanger navigated its transformation during the challenging COVID era, building a new executive team while every store was closed. He discusses the strategic expansion into lifestyle centers through acquisitions like Bridge Street Town Centre, The Promenade, and Pinecrest, the critical importance of food and beverage in driving traffic and extending dwell time, and how technology and data analytics are reshaping the tenant experience. Justin also opens up about the soft skills that separate great leasing professionals from good ones—treating every lease as the beginning of a partnership, not the end of a transaction.
2:47 – Justin's unconventional entry into real estate from his buddy's couch to CBRE industrial
3:56 – Tanger's history and the bold transformation under CEO Stephen Yalof during COVID
7:06 – Strategic evolution from outlet-only to full-price retail with lifestyle center acquisitions
9:06 — Key takeaways from this year's ICSC Vegas conference and the optimistic mood
11:56 – How Tanger stays ahead of retail trends through strategic reinvestment and partnerships
13:47 – Portfolio diversification beyond footwear and apparel into F&B and entertainment
16:05 — The Nashville development as a blueprint for placemaking and experiential retail
18:28 – Technology integration through the loyalty app and omnichannel strategies
22:50 – Building long-term brand partnerships versus transactional lease deals
25:01 – What's changed in retailer conversations about opening new stores
26:41 – Tanger's growth plans and expansion into new markets and categories
30:57 – Career advice: doing what you love and leaving everything on the field
Transcript
Aaron Strauss: You're listening to The Dealmakers' Edge with A.Y. Strauss, diving deep into stories behind commercial real estate leaders.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to The Dealmakers' Edge. Today, we are joined by Justin Stein, who is Executive VP of Leasing at Tanger. With more than two decades in retail real estate, Justin's played a key role in Tanger's transformation from a legacy outlet operator to a dynamic, diversified portfolio of open-air shopping centers across the U.S. and Canada.
In this episode, Justin walks us through that evolution, including their strategic expansion into lifestyle centers, full-price retail, the shift towards placemaking and experiential destinations in retail, and really how his team is meeting the needs of today's omnichannel, experience-driven consumer. It's a great conversation. Justin brings tremendous professionalism and energy and enthusiasm to what he does.
He's going to talk about what's changed in retail leasing over the last several years, key takeaways from this year's shopping center conference in Vegas—hint, he said it was awesome—also how Justin and his team approach long-term brand partnerships as opposed to one-off transactions. Tech data we touch on, which is constantly shaping tenant strategy. Also, just what the future looks like for both the retail industry in general, Tanger, and a whole lot more. So looking forward to jumping into the conversation, and here we go.
Hello everyone, welcome to The Dealmakers' Edge. Today I'm really excited to be joined by the one and only Justin Stein, who has been in real estate for over 20 years. We're going to get some of his background and hear about his journey, about how he got all the way to the present, which is Executive Vice President of Leasing at Tanger, and kind of how he broke into the industry and what kicked it off and how he got here.
Justin, really was great to see you in Vegas briefly. You were working really hard, that's your big show, and great to see everything you've done. Maybe you could just talk about how you broke into the industry?
Justin Stein: First of all, Aaron, thank you for having me, and I'm a very big fan of your podcast. And thank you for being such a great advocate in our industry. It's really important. I've broken into the industry on the broker side of business. It's been about eight and a half years. On the broker side of business, I started my career at CBRE, spent some time at Newmark, and Cushman & Wakefield.
From there, I transitioned over to the landlord side of business with Simon Property Group where I handled big banks of business across all three platforms there. And then from that point, I did make the transition in 2021 over to Tanger, as you said, as the Executive Vice President of Leasing. That's where I've been on the floor for the last four years.
Now how I got into the business is pretty unique and kind of an interesting story. I came out of grad school, I got my masters, and was sitting on my buddy's couch with his father who's pretty big into real estate in New Jersey and he was like, "What do you want to do with your life?" I was like, "I don't know." He was like, "Well, why don't you get into real estate?" I was like, "Okay."
He made a call for me, got me an opportunity at CB Richard Ellis on the industrial side of the business. I knew right away, I love this business. I also knew right away, I hated industrial. I was in suits climbing through loading docks, and I knew that's not what I wanted to do. So I quickly pivoted over to the retail side, and I haven't looked back. It's been great.
Aaron Strauss: That's awesome. Obviously, you're at a company that's had a tremendous history, and wow, it's undergone really a significant evolution over the last several years. I know you've really played a critical role in that.
Maybe for people who don't know where you're at or exactly the history and Tanger generally, maybe you could describe the history and kind of the biggest changes on the strategy and focus and the ongoing evolution as such?
Justin Stein: Well, before I get into the evolution, I have to mention the vision and the drive of our founders, Stanley and Steve Tanger. They started this company 44 years ago, been publicly traded for the last 32 years.
We're a small company. We have 41 assets, about 16 and a half million square feet. Our enterprise value is just under $6 billion. But we're a mighty company.
You talked about that evolution over the past four years. That's where we've really stepped up our game. It all starts with our Chief Executive Officer, our current CEO, Stephen Yalof. Stephen joined this organization in April of 2020.
Aaron, in April 2020, that was a very interesting time for our business. He took the job, and literally every store and every center was closed. I don't even know what he was thinking, but he obviously had vision for what he was doing.
He and the rest of the Tanger team at the time did what they had to do to navigate that tough year. I mean, we all left the office one day, I thought we were going to be back in 10 days, and who knew what the next day was going to bring?
But the team really navigated COVID extremely well. And Steve had a big vision for this organization. Over the next four years, he slowly transformed his executive team. He brought on Leslie Swanson, our Chief Operating Officer, Michael Bilerman, our Chief Financial Officer, Jessica Norman, a new General Counsel, and myself, who had leasing. So to be a publicly traded company and rework and revamp your entire executive team within a two or three-year period is a scary thing to do.
But, you know, our results speak for themselves. And we're really proud about how we've taken this company over the last four-ish years. Each of us have rebuilt our respective departments over that time. We've added some of the smartest, most creative, and genuinely good quality people in the industry.
The people are the reason why Tanger's winning today. When it comes to our strategy, Aaron, that's simple. We create a high-quality, safe, and enjoyable shopping experience for all of our guests, and we provide the world's best brands at the most affordable price point.
So, period, simple. Our strategy is not something that is that difficult to get your hands wrapped around, but we feel like we do it really well.
Aaron Strauss: Awesome. And what's that famous statement people say, "Calm seas don't make good sailors"? I guess if you can start the transformation during COVID, what can't you do in the industry? That's really remarkable.
I know historically, Tanger's known for outlet retail—that's the roots—and then it's moved more into lifestyle centers like we've talked about, more like full-price retail now. The acquisitions of Bridge Street Town Centre, the Promenade, and Pinecrest, what led to that shift, and how has it impacted your leasing strategy?
Because you've had to see a lot of different deals from a lot of different angles, and you juggle a ton. So maybe you could talk about how that's been going?
Justin Stein: It was a natural evolution for us into the full-price world because we know how to operate and manage open-air centers, and certainly we know how to lease to some of the best brands out there.
So from a leasing perspective, we're dealing with the same people on the real estate side of the business. When we're working with Nike, or Sephora, or Crocs, Barnes & Noble, J.Crew, it's the same people that run real estate for those organizations, for both the outlet and full-price business.
We pride ourselves on our strong relationships with our brands. People want to do business with Tanger. They love the fact that we got into the open-air lifestyle world.
We've been so successful right out of the gate that retailers, when we were in Vegas, they're begging us to buy more.
They're like, "What's next? What's next for Tanger?" Because they know that we operate these centers in a first-class manner. They love the Tanger flag on the property.
Being in the full-priced space has 100% opened up our world to brands that we didn't have relationships with before. So you take a look at Apple, Apple doesn't have any outlets. We didn't have a relationship with Apple, but now we have two centers that have Apples in them, and now we have that relationship.
So we are leveraging this to educate the brands on the outlet channel and hopefully move them into that world, and we're making meaningful progress there.
Aaron Strauss: That's awesome. We just saw each other in Vegas for a very brief period because you were working real hard. I was an eyewitness to that velocity you're describing, and it was great to see you in action for a few minutes.
Talking about mood this year, retail is always evolving. Obviously, Tanger is evolving in its own way. You talk to so many people, and you were running so many meetings. Overall mood, key themes—any takeaways you want to share with people listening?
Justin Stein: Well, as you said, you stopped by the booth. First of all, how beautiful was our booth? I have to give it to our creative team.
Aaron Strauss: Beautiful. Beautiful. Gorgeous. And well lit, well ran, welcoming, just like you try to be as a center. So it was a real good vibe. You guys obviously did a fantastic job with it.
Justin Stein: Thank you. I'm sure they'll be listening to this, and they'll appreciate those words.
But as far as the show goes, it was incredible, incredible energy. People were in the deal-making mood. It was probably the best, if not the best, ICSC that I've attended in 23 years.
At Tanger, we had about 139 unique meetings during the two-day span on the floor. About 20% of them were with new brands that aren't even in the Tanger portfolio today. So we're reaching out to tenants that we talked about previously that haven't been with us.
That was a big push for us this year in Vegas. This year also, we created a dedicated food and beverage suite within our booth because we wanted to show those brands how serious we are and how serious we're taking this movement in this category, and they really appreciated it.
Every tenant who was there wanted to make deals. The brands that are closing stores or their sales aren't strong, they probably didn't attend Vegas. So anyone who's there wanted to make deals.
What was really encouraging is that not only were brands looking for new business to make sure they fill their open [inaudible] this year in 2025, they were looking at '26. We even had people talk to us about '27 and '28. They're like, "What's coming up in '27 where are tenants underperforming, tenants that are under market rents, where do we have opportunities to right-size our fleet and grow with you throughout your portfolio?"
So that was amazing to see. It was an amazing show. The team is energized. They came back wanting to hit the pavement and get these deals done. Like I said, this is probably one of the most encouraging ICSCs that I've ever been at.
Aaron Strauss: That's really, really cool to hear firsthand. Let's talk about just the retailer evolution. So, I mean, Tanger is evolving, your career is growing, a lot of talent around you continues to evolve around the experience of the tenants and whatnot, but retail keeps shifting.
So even pre-COVID, COVID, five, ten years ago, the market's a hell of a lot different than it is today. So how is Tanger trying to proactively evolve with the flow to meet up with this kind of bleeding edge, which is, every year, retail seems to kind of reinvent itself to some degree?
So how are you guys thinking about staying ahead of that curve, which is a constantly moving ball in motion?
Justin Stein: Yeah, love this question. Two things. One, brands are looking for a true partner out there. They want to work with people that not only just care about signing a lease, but helping their business flourish after that.
Two, reinvestment in their portfolio. They see the importance of reinvesting in their fleet, and they want a landlord partner who's also reinvesting in their portfolio.
And we're doing that. Over the past 12 to 24 months, we've spent a significant amount of capital throughout our portfolio. We spent capital in Phoenix, Arizona. Our Deer Park, Long Island property looks unbelievable. Hershey, Pennsylvania. Charleston. Sevierville, Tennessee. And we're about to embark on a very big redevelopment and capital spend in Foley, Alabama.
So this is throughout the country. We're not just focusing our capital in one geographic area. But there's great opportunity out there for us to continue to reinvest in our portfolio. Tenants love it.
And when we spend our capital, they see how dedicated we are in the specific market, and they start remodeling their stores. It's making a meaningful difference.
Aaron Strauss: Yeah, and it really is a win-win. If the tenant has a good experience, the customer will have a good experience. Tanger and its shareholders will have a good experience.
So that's really kind of common sense, but to hear you say it explicitly makes perfect sense as well. So thanks for spelling that out.
And then, we talked just briefly about the booth, and you've introduced more food and beverage entertainment into the portfolio, which historically really hasn't been there.
So why was that so critically important? How do you figure out the right mix vis-a-vis the existing tenants? You've got a lot to juggle, but how do you get to that analytical framework that makes sense for the macro vision of Tanger?
Justin Stein: Portfolio diversification is always top of mind for us. I believe that this leasing team separates themselves from everybody else in the industry because of the merchandising mindset that we have. Here's a great example: coming out of COVID, our portfolio diversification was about 80% dependent on footwear and apparel. That number is now 70%.
So we've made meaningful progress there of diversifying our portfolio outside of footwear and apparel.
You talked about F&B. F&B is critical. Why? Because it drives traffic to the centers. It drives repeat business. It keeps people on campus longer.
What we know from our data analytics is the longer they stay on campus, the more money they spend with other retail brands. It's a win-win. You talk about a win-win, that's a win-win for everybody.
In fact, last night I was at dinner with two amazing F&B brands, Shake Shack and Sweetgreen. They're looking at ways to scale their business strategically, and they want to do it with Tanger.
When it comes to F&B, we need to make sure that we curate the right amount of F&B. We need to ensure that we have QSRs (Quick Service Restaurants). We need to make sure that we have full-service sit-down restaurants. And we need to ensure that we have the best grab-and-go snack concepts—Auntie Anne's, Jamba Juice, et cetera—because all of them are critical to the mix in our centers.
Aaron Strauss: Yeah, and again, you hit all the angles, so you can have the person shopping for something quick, the person who's going to make an afternoon out of it. And making that balance and that blend, it's kind of like the glue in a way to the portfolio of other tenants that are there because people need to eat and need to hang out, which is the whole point of these centers. So that's awesome.
Another aspect of retail, which has been the buzzword the last five, ten years, I guess, is more and more sold online. Obviously, that's an endless conversation. But "experiential" has been the buzzword. You know, placemaking, creating these experiential retail destinations. And consumers change their tendencies like the wind every few years. But how is Tanger thinking about that? Placemaking, experience, experiential retail. It's something that has to be evaluated all the time. So what's the current thinking?
Justin Stein: Our team thinks about placemaking every day. You can look no further than one of the new ground-up developments that we built two years ago in Nashville. Not only is that the outlet with the most dense F&B component—I think we did 21,000 square feet of food and beverages—it was like 8% of the GLA, which was unbelievable.
But we built a spectacular green space at the center. We have a children's play area. We have games like cornhole, ping pong, chess. We have multiple big screen TVs. I think we have, I don't know, like a 30-by-30-foot TV there. So you put where families can come and sit down and watch sporting events.
We have food trucks. So like on a Sunday in Nashville, if the Tennessee Titans are playing, we have the Titans game on the television with sound. We have food trucks. We have the kids playing in the children's play area. And these spaces are being used exactly how it was intended to be used.
As we've rolled through our renovations, which we previously discussed, we're working on replicating this at all of our centers because we see that it's working, and it's keeping people on campus longer, as we discussed. We want people to come to a Tanger Center and spend the day and not have to leave. We want them to have exactly what they want in one place for the entire family. So we feel like we've cracked the code there, and we're happy about it.
Aaron Strauss: That's awesome. That doesn't happen by accident. It really requires a really kind of deep analytical knowledge base and gut feel, and probably a ton of market research and a ton of consumer research to figure out. Because a lot of people develop—I've seen in all areas of real estate—they'll develop something that they think the use is going to be X, but it's really Y. And it's like, "Why did you build that?"
But to see it play out in the way you expected is proof positive that you had the right thinking up front. That's awesome to hear. And that builds the loyalty.
Speaking of loyalty, I know obviously online retail, the hybrid, there's tons of talk of that. I know you have a loyalty app that you guys have. Maybe you could talk about that. How does that technology, customer engagement, all of that tie into the broader leasing and traffic-driving strategy? Because the online-physical continuum is at work, keeps evolving. And maybe you could talk about how you're thinking that through in real time.
Justin Stein: We're leaning into technology more than ever before, and we're investing very heavily into it. You mentioned the loyalty app that we rolled out about a year and a half ago. We're learning from it. We're getting critical data from it, critical data that helps us lease. It's been a game changer for us.
And what's unique about it is customers are able to stack their discounts on top of the everyday savings that they're getting when they visit a Tanger Center. All of this is funded by the retailers who participate in the program. Like, give you an example, you go to a Crocs store in National Harbor outside of DC, our center there. The store may be 40% off. So you go, but if you are a Tanger loyalty customer and Crocs participates in this program, depending on what level you are—whether you're a Blue member or a Gold member or a Platinum member—there will be additional discounts.
It could be "spend $150, get an additional 30% off." So the retailers love this. They're seeing larger basket sizes. They're seeing increased incremental sales. And we're taking a lot of this data, and we're targeting shoppers with the brands and the offers that they want and that they specifically use.
So you're not getting the same offer that I'm getting, because maybe your shopping habits are different than mine. So we're training our shoppers to open their emails versus delete them. That's really important to us.
So how I think about it is, we take technology plus our leasing, plus the way we operate our centers in a very surgical way. That is what's helping us win on the sales and traffic line.
Aaron Strauss: Absolutely. Just that data about how people are spending and where they're spending and how much, that loyalty app has enormous power for you. But to talk to a retailer who's maybe not in the Tanger portfolio and say, "Look, we're going to drive value across the board. You're going to have a better understanding of your own customer than you previously didn't even have." You're literally partnering with us.
So that makes a lot of sense. I think that's a great real-time value to explore between the online and the physical, which keeps evolving.
That leads us to the next question. Digital and physical, physical and digital—back and forth. People are in the store, they're on their phone, they're on their app—"Should I buy it here? Should I buy it online?" You know, it's this term omni-channel, right, people keep throwing out. So maybe you could talk about how your retail partners, when they're negotiating their leases, are these kinds of omnichannel issues coming up more than they would three or four years ago? If so, how is that flowing through? I'm curious.
Justin Stein: Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't call it an issue. I think they are more intertwined than they ever have been before. Retailers understand that they need a complete omnichannel experience in order to win and reach the customer. And we believe that as well.
It's why we've invested so much in technology, as we've discussed. It's why we've revamped our website. We want the customer—and we're okay with the customer—starting their journey online. We want them to complete it at a Tanger Center. That's aligned with how the retailers are thinking.
That's why the loyalty program and the loyalty app were so critically important to us, to get us closer to the data, get us closer to the customer, let us understand the customer better. Let's help them start their journey online, but let's make sure we bring them on campus to finish that purchase.
Aaron Strauss: That's awesome. That's really how it should be, because you can't stop people from shopping and conducting business in the way that, organically, they're going to get the best experience. So if you could tie it together, that really is that win-win.
We also talked about the fact that you guys are in a good position to have really built some great long-term partnerships with tenants.
Now you're talking to different types of tenants as you're getting into different types of centers. A lot of people are very transactional in real estate. Here's lease, here's center, here's the deal. But I think you guys take much more of a brand partner focus.
You look at the holistic relationship of one tenant and say, "Well, this relationship is, we're getting in with this one store or two stores, but this could be a 50-store relationship with a tenant." So how would you talk to people who are maybe building a portfolio or trying to think broadly beyond just, "Here's a deal"? How do you build those relationships with a tenant that's holistic, that's scalable, that's healthy? I mean, kind of the soft art, if you will, as opposed to the hard science.
Justin Stein: The leasing team and Tanger overall is all about the partnership. If I would just stress one thing, people want to do business with people they like. People love working with us because they know that we believe that the hard work starts once the lease is signed.
Everyone can get the lease signed, but that's where we shine, right? That's where we work with the brands through the legal process. We work with the brands and hold their hand through the tenant coordination process to help get them open, because the quicker we get them open, the quicker their cash register starts ringing.
That's where we feel like we separate ourselves from our competition. We believe it's our job to drive traffic. It's the tenant's job to convert that traffic into sales. That's why it works. We're not putting everything on the tenant once we sign the lease.
We take responsibility there. There's no doubt, Aaron, that we've been winning on the OTB—the open-to-buy front—because of the relationships that we've established. We don't bully people, we don't leverage people, and we treat it like a true partnership.
I always say, at the end of the day, in our business, you have two things. You have your time and your reputation, and both are equally important to us, and we take that very seriously.
Aaron Strauss: Obviously, it really comes through, Justin. Your energy you bring and obviously the brand you're helping to create every day, it really does come through. It's really exciting to see.
Retailers, they change their minds all the time based on things like tariffs or interest rates or God knows what, because the market keeps moving all the time. But if you're talking to a retailer today, opening stores versus a few years ago, what's changed in that conversation?
Obviously, there's pre-pandemic, post-pandemic. I think we're moving away from even a post-pandemic environment now because it's been a while. But people do have PTSD.
What are the conversations now in real time versus even a few years ago, opening a store? There's the fear, I think, is gone, but what else is being baked into those conversations versus a few years ago and thinking about opening a new location?
Justin Stein: Well, the in-store customer experience is more important than ever. Tenants are investing more dollars than they ever had before to enhance that. I'll give you an example.
About two weeks ago in our Huntsville, Alabama asset—about two hours south of Nashville—we opened up our first LEGO store. They have this experience in there for people to try the LEGOs, build, and get immersed in the product.
That proves to be winning, because when people play around—it's funny, I didn't just see 10, 11, 12, 15-year-old kids playing there, there were 30- and 40-year-olds building projects there. And then they go out and they buy the project. It was great to see.
So tenants are investing more than ever in their stores. Not only are they building new stores, tenants are remodeling their existing fleet at a very quick pace. They're investing in lighting, they're investing in fixtures, they're investing in their storefronts—which is critically important—their POS systems.
They're creating this more inviting customer journey, and it's definitely translating into sales. And we love being a part of that journey with them.
Aaron Strauss: That's awesome. I mean, you're on this journey. I mean, you're really instrumental. What's next for Tanger? Where's the company going?
Anything specifically, you talk about food and beverage, markets, concepts, anything sort of a buzzword internally or externally where you think in the next few years this opportunity is going to pop? Or maybe sort of a North Star you're aiming for X, as far as growth goes?
Justin Stein: You know, we talked about Nashville. That was probably the first big ground-up development post-COVID that anybody did. We acquired another outlet center in Asheville, beautiful Asheville, North Carolina. We bought Huntsville.
As you mentioned, we bought Promenade At Chenal and then Pinecrest outside of Cleveland. When it comes to external growth, we're not done. I'm personally not satisfied with the 41 assets we have. I want to continue to scale this business personally. I know the rest of the executive team wants to as well, and our board.
But we need to stay prudent. We need to stay disciplined with where and how we invest. But we love our evolution into the full-price business. As I mentioned, it's opened up our world to not only a new tenant base, but our total addressable market has expanded because of that.
We're excited about those opportunities. We also believe there are very strong outlet opportunities out there for us.
As far as concepts and categories, I'm really excited about the opportunity to do more business in the beauty category. I love health. I love wellness. Clearly, we talked a little bit about food and beverage and entertainment.
We have a Main Event coming to our Deer Park location in 2026. So, there's real opportunity and significant upside for us out there.
Aaron Strauss: That's awesome. It really comes through. I mean, the energy you bring, it just, through the recording, we can feel it, we can hear it. That energy is going to continue to see that growth.
It's almost like you can't stop the growth once it's started. It's a good thing because success tends to breed success.
Speaking of which, let's talk about you a little bit, because obviously you're part and parcel a Tanger brand, and it's exploding and you're doing awesome stuff. But a lot of this podcast, we try to gear towards people who are trying to become the next version of you in, you know, 10–15 years down the road in their careers are trying to get up to that next level and finding balance, and hitting on issues of mental health and balance when you're trying to grow is something very sensitive. People don't talk about it. But in the podcast, we try to bring a little awareness to it.
So maybe for a moment—we don't have to get too deep into it—but what do you lose sleep over? How do you find balance? How do you manage that adrenaline that pumps through your veins every day to do the deals?
Then the invariable heartache that comes—you go up, you go down, you lose a deal—and just coming down to almost like an even keel for the rest of your life that's not on adrenaline. How do you balance that in real time? That'd be a good thing to hear about.
Justin Stein: Yeah, so that balance is critically important. Without it—without the work-life balance—I don't know how any of us would get through our days.
But if I had to point, Aaron, to one thing that keeps me up at night, it's employee retention. We've all put a lot into building our teams with quality, professional, brilliant, and just overall good, solid people. We're firing on all cylinders here at Tanger.
I want to keep this band together for a long time and have an amazing run. I think that is the one thing that I constantly think about. I want to make sure I'm keeping my team happy, motivated, and eager to learn because what we're doing is special. I want to make sure we continue that.
Aaron Strauss: Well said. You know, it's interesting, a lot of people think they're not in the people business. They think they're in the real estate business or they're in the leasing business. But even the people who are behind the big shopping center portfolios, it's really about maintaining those relationships internally and externally.
I've got to say, Justin, you're a fantastic speaker on behalf of the company. You bring a tremendous enthusiasm and optimism. It comes through, your love and passion for this industry, and obviously the company.
And overall, if you can categorize that transformation—personally, professionally—anything else you can educate somebody listening to about how they know they're in the right place? Because I mean, I look at you through this video, I'm listening to you, having met in person, you can just sort of feel when something sits right with somebody.
So how does somebody know they're on the right track? Kind of in their career, in the right place, in the right time, what are the things that click for you? Then maybe we'll wrap on that question. And I really appreciate the time, it's been awesome.
Justin Stein: My recommendation is do what you love to do. I wake up every single morning, and I cannot wait to get to the office or get to the airport and see where my day takes me.
Every day in our industry, and this specific business, is different. I think that's what motivates me. It's like I can be sitting here with my plan of attack for the day, and something always goes awry. But that's what I think we love about this industry and what we love about this business.
It has been an amazing journey—not just at Tanger—but I look back on my brokerage days, which were instrumental to building the foundation as to who I am today and what I've become. But I couldn't have done it without everybody along the way and the team that I've worked with.
I mean, I couldn't be happier and be in a better position and love what I do. So that would be my recommendation: pick something that you love, put 100% into it, and just make sure when you leave the office every day, you feel like you didn't leave anything on the field.
Aaron Strauss: That's awesome advice for everybody at every stage. And it's really cool to see your personal energy, your personal story align so well with the Tanger story.
It's also really cool to see how that energy and enthusiasm translates all the way to the consumer. Because you're at the corporate level, you're making the deals, building those retail partnerships, they're investing in their stores and their experiences, and that bleeds through to the consumer.
So you're really driving a lot of really wonderful velocity, as it were, through the economy and the experience. You're somebody I think others can learn a lot from, and I know I have during this conversation.
So I guess we'll wrap with that, Justin. But again, I want to thank you for being on the podcast today. Thank you for your approach to everything, the energy and enthusiasm you bring, and just looking forward to watching your personal and professional growth, and obviously seeing the Tanger story just continue to evolve further and further, which I'm sure it undoubtedly will.
Again, just really thanks for being on. It's been awesome.
Justin Stein: Great being with you. Thanks for including me.
Aaron Strauss: Thank you for joining The Dealmakers' Edge. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Please give us a five-star rating so more people can follow the conversation.
The Dealmakers' Edge with A.Y. Strauss highlights the stories, successes, and struggles behind major commercial real estate investors. Each episode offers a behind-the-scenes look at commercial real estate leaders and their unique edge.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
