We are ready!

The New Year celebration has come and gone. The world has taken a moment to reflect on the past year and now we redirect our attention to goals for the new one. As we close out the first month of 2016, this is usually the time that most people abandon those well-intentioned New Year’s resolutions they so ambitiously made.

Nevertheless, I think there is still a real purpose for continuing these rituals each year. It presents a new set of opportunities to make ourselves better and to strive for loftier goals. Here at Stirling Properties, that reason is for us to try to prepare ourselves as best we can to deal with what the future holds: uncertainty.

Every day, we hear and read of crises, turmoil and drama in the news. And in times of greatest uncertainty, it is more critical than ever to prepare for opportunity.

Stirling Properties’ goals for 2016 have been finalized. Our pipeline is full and we have many exciting prospects in our future. However, the only thing I can really be certain of is that the year will provide uncertainty.

Basketball coaching legend John Wooden said, “When opportunity comes, it’s too late to prepare.” If his players were not prepared for the game, they would not be able to take advantage of the opportunities within it. His point was that opportunity comes to those who are ready for it.

With that in mind, we ended 2015 and begin 2016 with many great opportunities.

• Turtle Creek Crossing in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, is the largest retail acquisition by Stirling Properties in its 40 year history! The transaction occurred last week for the 295,000-square-foot shopping center at a purchase price of $48.1 million. Anchor tenants include Target, Kohl’s, Ashley Furniture, Bed Bath & Beyond, Ross Dress for Less, Old Navy and PetSmart.

• Our Mobile Office is experiencing remarkable growth throughout South Alabama. New restaurants, shopping and retail expansion — including Alabama’s first plaza-type development — is in the works with new tenant leases being announced often. From 2014–2015, total commercial volume for sales and leasing in Alabama increased by 169% and total transactions increased by 113%.

• Stirling Properties and CBL & Associates Properties, Inc., celebrated the Grand Opening of Phase II of Fremaux Town Center in Slidell, Louisiana, adding 283,000 square feet to the existing shopping center. Anchored by Dillard’s, the second phase allowed us to add even more great retail and restaurant options that will further solidify Fremaux Town Center as a premier regional shopping and entertainment destination, as well as a vital economic contributor to the area.

• We welcomed our first tenants to the recently completed Offices at Mid-City Market, a 54,000-square-foot, mixed-use complex in New Orleans. Orangetheory Fitness joined previously-announced Gallo Mechanical, LLC, Exceptional Dental and H-3 Aesthetics & Dermatology. We are anticipating new tenant announcements soon.

• Stirling acquired the 384-multi-family-unit “Retreat at Acadian Point” (formerly South Point Apartments) in Lafayette, Louisiana, bringing Stirling’s total number of units under management to 1,512. Upgrades are in progress and we are providing Lafayette residents with affordable luxury at a time when the local economy faces some challenges.

• Last year, Stirling Properties leased or sold nearly 4 million square feet of properties. From 2014–2015, our total transactions increased by 13%. Equally exciting, we are thrilled to welcome 45 new members to our Stirling family.

We’ve accomplished so much over the past year, and the best is yet to come. Stirling Properties continues to substantially increase our portfolio and expand our footprint across the entire Gulf South region, shaping us to be one of the most diversified full-service commercial real estate companies in the country.

So I don’t know when or where more opportunities will come, but I know that our Stirling Properties team is equipped, eager and more prepared than ever to meet them. Even John Wooden would be proud.

Therefore, when, where and how opportunity knocks, we are ready!