Chapter 176
Chapter 176
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 176
Chapter Title: Anchor Tenant Proposal
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Knock knock.
The secretary knocked on the door, and a voice from beyond said, "Come in." The secretary silently opened the door and stepped aside.
I walked in slowly.
Everywhere my eyes landed was dazzling. Not just the sophisticated interior, but even the fine details that were hard to notice unless you knew what to look for—they were all perfectly executed.
As expected. The chairman's office at a major construction conglomerate was on another level.
"You're here?"
Choi Yeo-hae, peering over thin glasses as she lifted her head, exuded the most "chairman-like" presence I'd seen from her yet.
Whenever I'd seen Choi Yeo-hae before, it had always been in a five-star hotel suite. This was the first time seeing her at work like this.
I'd thought [The Song] had grown to a decent size, but it was nothing compared to this.
"Have a seat. Something to drink?"
"I'm good."
She looked too busy to even make it to this guest table. What was the point of me drinking alone?
"Thanks for seeing me on such short notice. Glad our schedules lined up."
"That's just it. You don't contact me first very often, so when you asked if you could drop by out of the blue, I was shocked."
Choi Yeo-hae took off her glasses and set them down on one side of the desk as she spoke.
"As you can see, I'm swamped and can't step out easily. Had no choice but to summon you here."
"Of course I should come to you. Nice to get a tour of the company too."
"What's there to tour? All companies are the same."
They definitely aren't.
I swallowed the words rising in my throat. [The Song] was still a growing startup, after all...!
"Usually, when a venture CEO who's taken my investment comes to see me in person, there are two big reasons."
Choi Yeo-hae leaned back languidly in her chair.
"One is to ask for more funding, and the other is..."
"What's the first one?"
"Sorry, but their business failed, so they're here to apologize."
Ugh. Just imagining it gave me a headache.
If I'd taken Choi Yeo-hae's investment and gone bust, I'd probably act the same. On my knees, groveling and begging forgiveness.
Company investments were on a whole different scale. The kind of money no single person could repay in a lifetime.
Either beg for her mercy or face bankruptcy.
"Which do you think it is?"
"Hmm. It's rare to find someone who returns investment capital as handsomely as our CEO Song."
"Haha. You think so?"
"And you seem to have neatly wrapped up that recent issue too. So it can't be the latter."
Choi Yeo-hae smiled faintly.
"How much do you need to make such a precious trip here? Hmm?"
"You're too much. It could just be that I missed you and wanted to drop by."
"Flattery like that doesn't work on me. I've seen my share of slimy operators."
"No helping it then."
If she rejected even a bit of lip service, what could I do? I shrugged.
"It's not money I'm after."
"Then?"
"I'm here for something even more expensive."
"The way you say that scares me."
Choi Yeo-hae said it with a straight face.
"We're preparing to launch a new franchise brand."
"Another one?"
"Yeah. It's a new menu we tested at [Song Kitchen], and the response was good. We're thinking of running company-owned stores to test it out."
"Hmm."
Choi Yeo-hae put her glasses back on and rifled through some documents nearby. She seemed to be looking for something, then adjusted her glasses to the tip of her nose and peered at me over them.
"You just need a spot for one store, right? What scale are you thinking?"
"You're getting ahead of yourself."
"When you come to me with talk like that, it's obvious what you want."
Fair point.
"But looking at the spots your brands snag, they're always the best locations."
That's because we have this location scout called JoyLook at our company. Amazing performance.
"Makes me wonder if you even needed to come to me."
"What I want isn't just any 'good location.'"
She must have caught the subtle undertone in my voice, because Choi Yeo-hae set the documents back down.
We stared at each other in silence for a moment. She frowned slightly at my beaming smile.
"What are you scheming?"
Her tone was like she was interrogating me over some shady plot.
Come on. It almost made me feel like the villain. Though I did pull off some outrageous stunts pretty often.
I cut straight to the chase.
"The new city development—it's wrapping up soon, right?"
New city.
A massive project to shake off the "Seoul Republic" stigma, aiming to build a huge administrative-capital complex city outside of Seoul.
As a national endeavor, numerous public institutions were relocating there, ensuring a baseline population from the start.
A gigantic national project meant gigantic capital flows.
Construction firms swarmed to feast on those juicy fruits. Choi Yeo-hae herself had staked the company's fate on investments in the new city development.
"...And?"
Her gaze sharpened.
Mentioning headquarters' business must have put her on high alert.
But I wasn't in construction, and I wasn't scheming to muscle into the new city builds now.
"That large-scale mixed commercial complex going up in the new city's center—the shopping mall, in other words."
This was my target.
"Isn't the biggest issue that the commercial district is still unstable in these early stages?"
"...It is."
"Most residents moved there suddenly for work. They tend to head to nearby cities like Seoul or Daejeon for shopping, right?"
They'd ambitiously set out to build a new city apart from Seoul, but the awkward distance caused exactly this problem.
"Infrastructure isn't fully in place yet. Customers leak to nearby cities. In this uncertain new-city environment... attracting a reliable anchor tenant to guarantee steady foot traffic can't be easy."
"Ha. You even know the term 'tenant'?"
"Of course. Anyone renting space is a tenant. Simply put, a lessee."
It was a term common in real estate, so not unfamiliar. Running a company for long enough picks up all sorts of trivia.
"An anchor tenant is the key one that draws crowds to a mall."
"Spot on."
Choi Yeo-hae shook her head like she couldn't win.
"Anchor tenants can make or break a mall's success. Imagine an E-Mart Traders in the basement. You'd pull in every local resident."
If only. It'd be a guaranteed hit. But corporate responses had been lukewarm, so she must be burning inside.
Without a solid anchor, smaller tenants would hesitate too.
Especially in a strangely purposed "administrative-capital complex city" pretty far from Seoul.
This was where I made my move.
"Our brand will be your anchor tenant."
Choi Yeo-hae widened her eyes at my words.
"...What?"
"The company-owned store for that new franchise brand I mentioned."
I pushed forward confidently.
"It's a new brand, but the menu's popularity is already proven. We're bringing back a discontinued item to brick-and-mortar, so buzz will be high."
A clear win-win.
"You get differentiation with a unique brand, and can expect young crowds too."
"...."
"And snack shops like this boost dwell time in the mall."
Long-term, nothing bad for either side.
Choi Yeo-hae closed her eyes, weighing it, then slowly opened them.
The eyes of a merchant who'd crunched the numbers.
"What are your terms?"
Yes. That's the spirit.
"If you just wanted a store spot, you wouldn't go this far. Renting an empty slot would do."
Exactly.
The reason I'd come to Choi Yeo-hae myself was to negotiate.
"Name your conditions."
"First, the spot around the main escalator."
"Claiming the prime real estate. And?"
"For a new brand's early foothold and growth, rent is the biggest hurdle. A 50% discount for six months, or free for the first three, would be ideal."
"Heh. Rent discounts too?"
I grinned broadly.
"You know we'll generate more synergy than the forgone rent."
"We'll review and get back to you. Need to run the numbers properly on our end."
"Of course I'm not expecting an on-the-spot decision."
I could wait as long as needed.
"Third."
"There's a third?"
Choi Yeo-hae's face twisted. Her patience was wearing thin.
But I kept pressing.
"Third, I need a custom space fitting the brand concept. A photo zone would be great. That's what'll draw people from far-off Seoul."
"...."
Choi Yeo-hae wore a complicated expression. She knew it made sense, but my brazen demands irked her.
Scribble scribble.
She jotted down my three proposals roughly with a pen.
"You didn't bring a knife, or you'd be a full-on robber."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"It is. The highest praise."
I shrugged. She pinched her brow in a headache gesture.
"No fourth, right?"
"I can add as many as you want."
"Too scared to even joke."
Choi Yeo-hae shook her head.
"Will the review take long?"
"Three days. That's plenty."
"Sounds good. I'll await your positive reply."
I bowed, and she waved me out like "go already." I chuckled and turned.
It wasn't a bad deal for her either, so she'd tweak terms maybe, but she wouldn't block the entry.
'That's already a win for me.'
Considering the new city's steady growth, this first-mover advantage would snowball later.
Plus, it was set to attract stable high-income residents as the main consumer base.
'Just the real estate value until renewal is a huge profit.'
With that thought, a grin spread across my face.