THE
By: Jim Wallace It’ s long been said the
TREND three things that matter most in real estate are location, location, location. In that spirit, T. J. Summers believes he has the best
DEVELOPER location in West Virginia –
right off the W. Va. Route 34 exit from Interstate 64 in Putnam County. Putnam County remains one of few West Virginia counties with relatively high-income levels and continued population and employment growth. For that, he thanks his father, the late Al Summers, for making good choices in real estate, buying and selling at the right time and leaving his companies with no debt.
The Summers Companies include Four-S Development and the Albert T. Summers Family Trust. Better known are their holdings, which include Liberty Square and Liberty Plaza. Those adjacent shopping centers are the heart of commercial development in Putnam County at the I-64 / W. Va. Route 34 interchange( Exit 39). Although the properties have been established for many years, they remain active works in progress.
“ We constantly work to keep our properties fresh by reinvesting in them,” Summers says.“ At Liberty Square, our most highly valued asset – we have installed new LED lighting, which makes the property more inviting and improves security. We also reroofed the entire facility.”
With a hands-on philosophy of caring for the properties, he says,“ We have our own maintenance crew. We have our own sweeper truck and our own snow removal equipment rather than relying on third-party services for those things. We do it ourselves because we can do it in a more expeditious fashion and economical way.”
Summers also is a work in progress himself, continually building his knowledge as a professional in managing commercial property. That includes obtaining his professional designations as a Real Property Administrator( RPA ®) and a Certified Commercial Investment Member( CCIM), denoting he has completed advanced coursework in management of real estate assets as well as financial and market analyses. He also is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers( ICSC), an association serving the global retail real estate industry and consisting of more than 70,000 members in over 100 countries.
The Panera Bread is located on an outparcel to the Liberty Square Shopping Center.
“ We try to keep ahead of the curve because the retail environment is very difficult, as you can see from some of the store closings throughout the country,” Summers says.
He credits the stability of Putnam County’ s economy with helping his properties overcome such setbacks as weathering bankruptcies of companies like Hills, Ames and Big Bear, which were among Liberty Square’ s original anchor stores. As retailers come and go, Summers is always monitoring trends and looking for the companies that could improve the tenant mix at his shopping centers and satisfy the needs of the market.
In addition, he looks forward to expanding the company’ s current real estate portfolio by developing some other highly visible and accessible properties in Putnam County, which the West Virginia University Bureau of Business and Economic Research ranked among the top five counties for job creation between 2005 and 2015. The bureau projects Putnam County to be among a few counties that should enjoy employment growth at almost double the statewide average between 2016 and 2021. Summers properties available for development include six acres of land on W. Va. Route 34 known as Heritage Plaza, 14 acres called Liberty Park, which is east of Liberty Square, and another four to five acres a bit farther east called The Knoll. Liberty Park Drive, a connector road built in 2014 between the W. Va. Route 34 and U. S. 35 interstate exits, makes Liberty Park and The Knoll more accessible than in the past.
Summers already knows the types of retailers he would like to attract. They include more casual dining restaurants, a sporting goods store, off-price merchandisers and electronics stores, as well as a hotel. But that’ s just his thinking right now. Retail trends change. T. J. Summers is ready to move with them.