B+E has developed a new method to address the persistent data gap in net lease real estate transactions, according to Camille Renshaw, CEO and Co-Founder. In a recent interview, Renshaw described how their strategy is improving market visibility for institutional investors.
“To be honest with you, we didn’t set out to collect that data. We set out to collect all available property on and off market, that buyers, that our families might want. But once we had all the data, we realized, oh my gosh, there are you see,” explained Renshaw, who moved from tech entrepreneurship to founding the New York office for Stan Johnson Company before launching B+E.
The net lease market has long suffered from fragmented information, with investors often relying on incomplete snapshots of inventory and pricing trends. Traditional platforms mostly highlight publicly listed properties, resulting in a significant blind spot for off-market opportunities and up-to-date pricing dynamics.
B+E has developed a multi-faceted strategy to tackle gaps in commercial real estate data. The firm combines comprehensive database integration, gathering information not only from its own listings but also from other brokerages and off-market properties, including owners’ potential sale prices. Real-time market analytics provide clients with granular insights, such as the availability of national chains along with key metrics like average cap rates, lease terms, and prices. Finally, cross-correlation technology links on-market and off-market data, giving investors a clearer picture of property positioning across various asset types and tenant categories.
Renshaw noted that B+E’s methodology was inspired by practices outside the real estate sector. “The place, honestly, that we learned a lot of this or began to conceive of, it was not by looking within the commercial real estate market, it was by looking at the NASDAQ. We hired very early on a marketing strategy firm that worked with the NASDAQ to come in and do a similar advisory assignment with us.”
This approach has delivered measurable benefits, according to Renshaw: “The whole casual dining space had 289 properties available last quarter, and 277 this quarter. It’s interesting to watch those trend lines, and you begin to realize casual dining is becoming more popular right now with investors. The average cap rate in that space has compressed slightly, about five bips in the last quarter.”
These detailed insights allow investors to make better decisions about timing and pricing. The data uncovers market shifts that traditional brokers may overlook, such as the recent increased interest in casual dining properties during a time of broader market uncertainty.
Despite these successes, Renshaw pointed out some challenges: “We think about the net lease space differently than the rest of commercial real estate, because there is a single tenant or a credit, a tenant credit associated with each property that we can underwrite.”
B+E has found that analyzing tenant credit in the net lease space requires different methods than traditional commercial real estate analytics. As a result, the company has developed proprietary underwriting models tailored to single-tenant properties.
Looking ahead, Renshaw sees opportunities to expand the platform’s use for broader market transparency. “It gives you a sense, both if you’re buying or selling into that market, how to price your pizza hut, or to know if you’ve got a good deal, if you’re getting a Pizza Hut for a seven cap, it’s a great real estate in the long term, then you can have more confidence in that purchase,” she explained.
B+E’s methodology could reshape how institutional investors approach net lease deals by offering the kind of transparency previously available only to the largest market participants. As the platform continues to evolve, it may set a new standard for information access and decision-making in the net lease sector.
