Salt & Souls: A true story of near perfection ✨

Just this past weekend, we got to do one of our ✨ most favorite ✨ parts of our work with brokerage clients...Pedal Last Mile! Months (sometimes many) after the lease is signed, and the buildout is coming to a close, we spend a day with our client helping with the final tasks before opening. We make swag bags, we steam clothes, we assemble shelves, we organize pickles...we do it all!

It was such a pleasure to spend the day with Jenna Morcos as she pushes through the "last mile" to opening day of Salt and Souls, Charlotte's premier halotherapy (salt cave) day spa.

We always have fun, but this time was especially fun since we got to bring our (actually very handy) kids to help.

🛠

In anticipation of Jenna's opening in just a week or two, here's a story we wrote about her fairly tale leasing journey.

🐉

Not long ago in the magical land of Charlotte, North Carolina, there was a beautiful and wise woman named Jenna who dreamed of opening a salt cave. Many years before, Jenna regularly drove two hours to visit a well known salt cave in Asheville because she was exhausted from slaying a dragon known as her first marriage, and a fairy godmother had given her a pamphlet about halotherapy. After returning to the spa time and again, Jenna knew that the salt cave’s powers were real — she found healing and peace, all in convenient 45 minute blocks where she got to keep all her clothes on.

🕊

Now since then, Jenna worked very hard day in and day out as a pharmacist, and she was very good at her job. But it was tough for Jenna to travel to Asheville on the regular because she had kids to feed and a house to clean. So she visited all the salt spas closer to her house, but none of them had the magic of the one in Asheville. Some were cold and sterile like a doctor’s office, and some were priced only for kings and queens. So one day while dropping off a package at the UPS store, a little bird flew onto Jenna’s shoulder and whispered, “Hey, it’s you! You’re the one who must bring forth the perfect salt spa in Plaza Midwood or Dilworth or NoDa!”

🚷

So Jenna kept working as a pharmacist, but she would daydream (without making any mistakes with anyone’s drugs, mind you) about her salt spa. On her days off, she would do research for her business plan, but every time she tried to get information about retail spaces, she was blocked by the bridge trolls that guard the entrance to land of retail real estate. But one fateful day, a very wise business coach told Jenna about Pedal, so she sent an email, and the world opened before her eyes!

For the first couple months, Jenna and the fairy godmothers at Pedal worked hard to build financial projections and a capital budget. Then they gave Jenna an enchanted Google doc whereupon Jenna wrote a compelling business plan. Then they waved their magic Canva wands of beautification, and out popped a shimmering powerhouse business plan for “Salt & Souls” that Jenna took right to her banker who approved her loan.

✨

With her business plan in one hand and loan pre-approval in the other, Jenna and Pedal set about finding the perfect retail space for Salt & Souls.

1️⃣

The first space they came upon was in a nicely renovated shopping center, but the space itself was larger than Jenna needed. So she went to her financial projections to see how or if she could monetize the extra square footage. But sadly, it was not to be. The space was just too big. So they journeyed on.

2️⃣

The second space they found had excellent visibility in a busy area, but it had too much natural light, and while that’s a dream for many other businesses, Jenna would have had to build a whole bunch of walls to create her cave. So they journeyed on.

3️⃣

Then they came to the third space. It was in a great area, and it was next to a very popular coffee shop. The space was narrow and deep…it was dark…it was like…a cave! It seemed perfect, but it needed a whole lot of construction to turn it into Salt & Souls, and Jenna was nervous that the project would be too much for her budget. But the team knew the strength of the powerhouse business plan, so they sent it to the landlord with a wish and some pixie dust.

📣

Over at the landlord’s office, the broker whose dinner was determined by whether or not he leased spaces in the property ran excitedly up the stairs to the landlord’s chambers at the top of the tower and shouted, “Good sir! I do believe we’ve found a suitable tenant!” And the landlord came down from his perch and examined the powerhouse business plan including the financial projections and capital budget and read the bank’s pre-approval letter.

💭

With optimism tempered by experience, the landlord said to the young broker, “Let’s try to make a deal here. Remain true to our underwriting fundamentals, but be generous, since I can see that she will need a substantial investment from us to complete her buildout. And because this cave-like space has been vacant for too many moons because other tenants wanted more natural light, this salt woman seems the perfect match! Act with haste and be flexible! Go forth!”

   💰

In short order, the landlord’s broker issued the first round LOI. Jenna and her Pedal-godmothers were pleased with the initial offer, but knew that there was still honey to be pressed from the comb, so they traded the LOI back and forth a few times before agreeing to a quite favorable deal that met all of Jenna’s budgetary and operational criteria. After a straightforward lease negotiation, the ten-year deal was inked.

🌸

Jenna could finally announce that Salt & Souls would be opening before the next winter solstice. She and her Pedal-godmothers danced and made flower crowns and drank champagne. And back at the landlord’s office, the landlord and the broker feasted on roast duck and also danced, made flower crowns, and drank champagne. Everyone went to bed happy.

🔑

The moral of the story is that if you’re prepared, and if you trust the process, the retail real estate process can be very easy. And if you want to ask Jenna yourself, you can visit Salt & Souls at 2501 The Plaza very soon.