AKIRA · 1 week ago
Director of Real Estate & Store Portfolio Management
Chicago, IL
Full-time
Onsite
Lead/Staff, Director/Executive
$100K/yr - $140K/yr
5+ years expAKIRA is an expanding fast-fashion retailer with 40+ locations and an aggressive plan to grow to 100+ stores over the next several years. The Director of Real Estate will manage the national store portfolio strategy, including renewals, site selection, negotiations, and landlord relationships, playing a critical role in the company's profitability and growth. This high-impact position requires strong analytical and negotiation skills to drive AKIRA's expansion and optimize its real estate portfolio.
Apparel & Fashion
Responsibilities
Build a 3–5 year real estate roadmap for AKIRA as we scale from our current 40+ stores
Analyze regional performance, co-tenancy trends, demographic shifts, mall traffic, and fashion ZIP heat maps to direct expansion or exits
Develop and maintain a portfolio scorecard using standardized metrics (e.g., occupancy cost %, sales PSF, EBITDA contribution, renewal risk)
Present quarterly recommendations to COO and ownership
Fully manage all lease expirations, options, renewals, rent escalations, and amendment negotiations
Maintain a proactive 24-month renewal calendar and internal notification system
Perform financial modeling on renewals (rent changes, CAM/NNN impacts, ROI on remodels)
Ensure timely execution of all lease documents
Identify new markets and high-potential locations using AKIRA's customer density, mall traffic, demographic match, and fashion ZIP scoring method
Conduct site tours, prepare comparative site matrices, and present recommendations
Partner with brokers (including Savills) to source and vet opportunities
Lead all negotiations with landlords for new stores, renewals, relocations, short-term pop-ups, and rent abatements
Secure favorable TI packages, free rent periods, caps on CAM increases, and co-tenancy protections
Coordinate with legal on lease review, risk identification, and redline management
Compare deals against industry benchmarks to ensure competitiveness
Work closely with Construction, Finance, Operations, and Store Leadership on openings, remodels, and closures
Partner with Finance to ensure accurate occupancy cost budgeting and forecasting
Provide detailed turnover requirements and timelines to Construction & Ops
Oversee Savills and all other real estate partners; set expectations, KPIs, and reporting cadence
Hold brokers accountable to delivering actionable market intel and competitive deal terms
Evaluate whether external brokerage workload should be expanded, replaced, or brought in-house
Build and maintain dashboards on store health:
Sales PSF
Occupancy costs
Year-1 ramp curves
Portfolio profitability clusters
Risk of decline (traffic shifts, anchor closures, competitive encroachment)
Recommend relocations or closures based on data and financial modeling
Create succinct, data-backed decks for ownership, COO, and board-level review
Provide monthly reporting: renewals, risks, landlord issues, new deals, and market trends
Represent AKIRA professionally with landlords, developers, and national REIT contacts
Qualification
Required
5+ years in retail real estate, ideally with a multi-unit specialty retailer (50–200 stores)
Strong experience managing high-velocity renewals, lease negotiations, and multi-market expansion
Advanced financial modeling skills (occupancy cost %, NPV of lease, break-even impact, EBITDA uplift)
Demonstrated success negotiating rent reductions, TI, abatements, and early termination strategies
Competency in reading redlines, coordinating with legal, and managing lease execution processes
Highly organized with ability to manage 50+ concurrent timelines and lease events
Data-oriented and comfortable using scoring frameworks, GIS, and demographic tools
Preferred
Strong relationships in the landlord community a plus (e.g., Simon, Brookfield, Macerich, WS, Kimco)
Benefits
Medical, dental, vision, life, disability
401(k), FSA/HSA, transit benefits
Generous employee discount
Company
AKIRA
AKIRA first opened in 2002 as a single women’s clothing boutique in the trendy Bucktown/Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago and is owned by Eric Hsueh, Erikka Wang, Sarah Hughes, Gordon Liao and Mark Ricard.
1001-5000 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageLeadership Team
Jon Cotay
Founder and Owner
Company data provided by crunchbase