Ian Ritter is online content manager at GRS Group
Forbes, as well as other mainstream financial publications, like to make lists.
Who has the largest revenue? Biggest profit margins? Most stores? Is most well respected? The best place for employees to work? Has the best customer service?
The criteria, unless we actually crunch numbers, often which are not available through public records, can be a tad bit subjective.
But, the great thing is that commercial real estate is almost always involved.
Forbes just did us the honor of releasing its “America’s Best Midsize Employers” list, which is apparently an annual ritual for the publication.
Sorry for the non-spoiler alert, but the top company named was outdoors apparel and accessories retailer L.L.Bean. The firm, know primarily for its catalog and Internet, sales, has several stores throughout the Northeast, as well as other states. Some of them are in very prestigious shopping centers. Mall of America, in Bloomington, Minn., which is the largest mall in the country, has one. So does the King of Prussia mall, outside of Philadelphia, and Tysons Corner Center, on the outskirts of Washington, D.C.
Second on the list is highly lauded retailer The Container Store. It has 77 stores across the country and plans to open 10 more in the coming year. The Container Store’s most recent quarterly sales improved, but the retailer posted an income loss during the period.
The third was Denmark-based diabetes bio/pharma firm Novo Nordisk. People might not think of this corporation as being something that has to do with commercial real estate, but the company has four big office/research campuses in the United States, which generate jobs that serve other commercial real estate interests around them.
When you read major headlines in business publications, it’s easy to gloss over things that have nothing to do with commercial real estate, when you are in this business. But commercial real estate is part of everyone’s business.