Hi, it's Abby, and I'm back with part deux of my list of bones to pick with landlords. (Missed part 1? You can check it out here.) This particular grievance arises from several virtually identical conversations I’ve had over the last few months. After I’d given the exact same rebuttal three times in a row, I knew it was time to put it in a newsletter.

As a mother of a toddler and a baby, I’m learning to access stores of patience I didn’t know existed. I’ve learned to endure everything from slingshots of mashed potatoes to full-blown meltdowns about the injustices of putting on shoes to leave the house. But despite getting better and better at channeling my inner mom-zen, there’s ...

Abby here with the first of a three part series covering my grievances with the owners of retail properties. Juicy, right?

First though, I want to be clear that being a great retail landlord is a ridiculously challenging endeavor I’d not soon attempt. The core job is to increase the value of a property, which is more than just collecting rent; it's selecting the right retailers whose businesses make sense for a given space and contribute to (or at least don't detract from) the rest of the neighborhood. The best retail landlords need keen understandings of what makes these inherently cyclical and sensitive businesses successful. It also takes a whole lot of luck. 

There are definite...

Since the beginning of Pedal time (2021), Abby and I have held firm to the belief that we should stay in our lane when it comes to advising clients. We felt the need to articulate this commitment on account of two things: (1) we already have a wide lane, and (b) everyone and their mother seemed comfortable dispensing lease advice, and that really annoyed us because the advice was usually wrong.  

So it’s in that vein that we’re sharing a series of newsletters where we get simple advice on high-stakes issues from actual subject matter experts in the many retail real estate-adjacent issues that we bump into regularly. And so without further ado…

How not to let your small business de...

Where I live in coastal Virginia, one of the most popular “things you do with kids to get them outside and off screens” is strawberry picking when the weather turns nice and warm. 

Most of us are familiar with the “picking” activities of the fall. Some people go pumpkin picking for the pumpkins, some go to take pictures of their babies, and the rest of us go for the apple cider donuts. When I lived in Annapolis, we’d go apple picking in middle-of-nowhere Maryland so that we could get outside, get more donuts, and spend the next two weeks trying to get rid of the 437 extra apples on the kitchen counter.

In my pumpkin and apple picking experience, after you do the picking, you ...

From our very first Dream Space meeting, it was crystal clear that Brittany Perna is whip smart and the kind of person you’d want on your team whether you’re playing Pictionary or battling a zombie apocalypse. Which is probably why she’s about to become DC area parents’ MVP. 

Del Play - The Toy Library of Alexandria will open its doors before the cherry blossoms return. 

As mom to 21-month-old Luca, Brittany had already experienced the frustration of buying toys for toddlers whose attention and activity levels rival squirrels on candy corn. Between the wasted time, ridiculous cost, and sustainability issues, Brittany knew something had to be done; as an educator-turned-software devel...

A few weeks ago, I took my daughter to The Adventure Park for a lovely, outdoor mother-daughter date. It was about 75 degrees outside, and underneath the canopy of the park’s shady trees, I congratulated myself for facilitating such an enjoyable experience. That lasted until I started the “adventure” part.

Google calls The Adventure Park an “aerial forest climbing and zip-line course,” which sounds quite pleasant. I’d actually hosted Alice’s 11th birthday party there, and those fifth-graders all seemed to have a fantastic time. So I was not expecting to spend my afternoon inadvertently doing an intense core workout and repeatedly exclaiming variations of “are you effing kidding me?” a...

 Abby here! I may have mentioned before that my career as a retail real estate broker began right after I graduated from Georgetown. I'd spent four years studying, learning, and doing quite a bit of socializing. Lucky for me, I was beginning a career where all my hard work chatting up strangers at Smith Point was a transferable job skill. 🍻

To be a great broker, you need strong relationships with other brokers (and not just because some can get you into hot new restaurants). It didn't take long on the job to learn exactly why, and I've written about it today. Enjoy!

It’s okay. You can stop pretending now. I appreciate the effort and that you don’t want to hurt my feelings, but I promi...

Abby here! It takes a village to care for a newborn, a two-year-old, and somehow still show up to work dressed and on time! So I've enlisted some help in the form Dio's and my parents. As grateful as we are for the help, the trade-off is we now receive approximately 147 urgent texts a day about Henry. "Is it normal if he wakes up 10 minutes early from his nap?" "He only finished half his bottle. Should I call the doctor?" "I can't find his swaddle anywhere — how will he ever sleep again!?"

As it turns out, none of these matters are urgent. So, I've been leaving my family on read, and I suggest you do the same! (No one tell my mother I said that.) 

There are lots of reasons people ...