Tim and Josh Bloom have returned home, even though they never really left. The members of the father-and-son commercial real estate team both grew up in this area while becoming successful brokers with CBRE, a multinational property management company. But they never had an office they could walk to from home, nor a major client in Highland Village—until now. They opened Bloom Commercial Real Estate (BCRE) a year ago above the Highland Shopping Center, a property they now manage for the owner, Howard Stacker. Tim’s corner office overlooks the Ford Parkway and Cleveland Avenue intersection, a commercial hub he has seen transformed since his childhood. Tim, 64, is a trim, bespectacled man who sports a moustache, is innately gregarious and lives in Macalester-Groveland. Josh, 34, is laid back, outdoorsy, tech-savvy, and a Highland Park resident.

 

“We just completed our first year and I can say we exceeded our projections,” Tim said. “We now have companies coming to us for representation in the market. They’re finding us.”

 

The Blooms could not be happier. Tim said that with his previous employer he handled projects that were not productive and that he really should not have been putting his time into. Josh, his partner on more than a few deals at CBRE, was happy to join his father in their new venture.

 

“I was nervous and excited,” Josh said. “CB was a great company, but I wanted a new challenge—and to be able to walk to work.” 

 

BCRE helps shopping center owners reposition their properties to attract strong national, regional and local retailers. To the storefront below its office, for example, BCRE lured the recently opened Panera Bread into the former Blockbuster space. The Blooms said Panera is a good fit for the center because it tends to draw other tenants who like the kind of consumers that restaurant attracts. Two other storefronts in the center, one next to Panera and one to be vacated soon by Aspen Clinic, have already attracted several interested retailers, Tim said. The Blooms are also repositioning and leasing the Suburban Avenue Shopping Center near 3M, Champlin’s Southpond Shopping Center, the Anoka Strip Center, Maplewood Square in Rochester and an undeveloped parcel in Shoreview. The other half of BCRE’s business is representing tenants who want to lease space in shopping centers. The company is currently working with the hamburger chain Five Guys as well as Verizon Wireless and Roundy’s. Having worked in commercial real estate his entire career, Tim has observed many trends over the years. He noted the rise of strip centers that dot the regional landscape with anchor tenants such as Best Buy and Target interspersed with smaller retailers. The newest members of the retail environment in many strip centers, he said, are health clinics.

 

“I like repositioning properties because it’s always something different,” Tim said. “I studied architecture and I like to be around buildings. And I enjoy introducing people to quality tenants.”

 

He has also seen the rise of chain restaurants, in particular those serving comfort food with an ambiance several steps up from fast food. The first to elevate the neighborhood restaurant concept was Perkins and, as in all things in retail, the idea was copiously copied by Panera, Smashburger, Noodles & Company and others. In his career, Tim has played a part in developing many high-visibility shopping areas, particularly along I-494. While working for CBRE, he assisted in the acquisition of land for Ikea, for the Shops at Lyndale, for the Best Buy campus and for the nearby Dick’s Sporting Goods. In St. Louis Park, he played a part attracting tenants to the West End, a new retail center that is anchored by a movie theater

and features restaurants, stores, a Rainbow Foods and an office park.

 

“These projects really reshaped the retail landscape of the Twin Cities over the last 25 years,” said Tim, who has worked with a veritable who’s who of retailers, among them REI, Gaylan’s, Best Buy and The Limited.

 

The Blooms have lived in local neighborhoods most of their lives. Tim graduated from Highland Senior High before earning a history degree at the University of Minnesota. Josh graduated from Central High School and hopscotched to several universities before earning a degree at Metropolitan State. Tim started his career in the retail trade and eventually bought Nate’s Men’s Shop in downtown St. Paul. After 20 years, he made the career change to commercial real estate focusing on retail at age 39.

 

“I wanted to do something that I understood and I think I know how retailers think,” he said.
“They were comfortable talking to me.”

 

Originally published January 2012 by Villager.