415. The Retail Story Everyone Gets Wrong with Jim Dillavou, Paragon Commercial Group

In this special guest episode of The TreppWire Podcast, we are joined by Jim Dillavou, co-founder and principal at Paragon Commercial Group, a retail investment and development firm. Jim left a career as a real estate and finance attorney to launch Paragon after the global financial crisis, betting on necessity retail when almost no one else wanted the asset class. He explains why treating retail as one asset class is misleading, and how grocery-anchored centers built on daily trips deliver durable cashflow across cycles. Jim also walks us through why institutional capital is lining up for the sector and still struggling to get in. We cover the value-add work most investors avoid, from repositioning drugstore boxes and out parcels to vetting mom-and-pop tenants with no credit behind them. Jim closes with what COVID revealed about tenant quality and why he believes this is not a guesswork business. Tune in now.Episode notes:• From Big Law to Buying Retail in the GFC (1:17)• Defining Necessity Retail & Why Nuance Matters (3:23)• Why Capital Cannot Easily Get Into the Sector (7:00)• Fixed Rent Bumps & the Shift to Risk-Off Capital (9:34) • Retailer Failures, Mark-to-Market Upside & an Operator's Market (14:44)• Value-Add Playbook: Demising Boxes, Drugstores & Out Parcels (20:28)• Tenant Mix, Cross-Shopping & the Mom-and-Pop Surprise (25:41) • Vetting Non-Credit Tenants, Elbow Space & Final Take (31:24)Questions or comments? Contact us at [email protected].      Follow Trepp:   X: www.x.com/TreppWireLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/trepp