Retail State of Mind.

Joel Dabu is a Senior Managing Director at Capricorn, active in the firm’s Tenant and Landlord representation and advisory practices. Driven by a lifelong passion for thriving cities in which vibrant retail plays the leading role, Joel’s award-winning two-decade plus career in urban planning and real estate has centered around strategy, problem-solving and successful execution. His expertise and experience has unlocked millions of dollars in capitalized value across a range of real estate asset types; from grocery-anchored strip centers, adaptive reuse developments, urban and high street retail districts to super-regional shopping malls.

Prior to Capricorn, Joel served as Managing Director at TSCG where he oversaw the company’s landlord representation business in the Northeast, with professionals in offices in Mclean, VA, Paramus NJ, and White Plains and Manhattan, NY. In this role reporting to TSCG’s executive office, Joel supported the development of new business and clients, devised marketing and leasing strategy and execution, and attracted and supported new talent to service a portfolio containing over 5 million square feet of retail assets. Projects Joel was involved with ranged from suburban grocery-anchored strip centers in Northern Virginia to retail in urban, adaptive reuse projects like Industry City in Brooklyn.

At New York-based Midwood Investment and Development, Joel tackled a portfolio of buildings as varied as the cities they spanned. From SoHo's trendy Spring Street, where he landed full-floor office leases for a European fashion house and a New York investment firm, to a vacant Texas strip mall anchor position re-energized with a regional gym chain, Joel navigated diverse physical conditions, market dynamics, and tenant needs. In Elmhurst, Queens, Joel led the effort to transform a vacant retail building on one of Queens’ busiest corners into a high-visibility location for CityMD and Vistasite Eye Care, securing market-leading rents with minimal landlord investment. And at the newly developed Shops at Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City Los Angeles, Joel negotiated leases with Tocaya Modern Mexican, Roberta’s Pizza, and Civil Coffee among others.

Prior to Midwood, Joel served as a New York City-based leasing representative for the Taubman Company and its market-leading national portfolio of super-regional shopping centers. While at Taubman, Joel championed the introduction and expansion of new retail concepts such as Albion Fit, APM Monaco, CoreLife Eatery, Evereve and Calzedonia Group to Taubman centers. Additionally, Joel’s training and experience as an urban planner proved invaluable in his role as leasing asset manager for the trophy mixed-use development City Creek Center in downtown Salt Lake City. In this role working in conjunction with the property management team, he devised a strategy to shift the retail tenant mix that led to increased traffic, sales, and elevated the property to an impressive 97% occupancy.

Joel is a member of ICSC, the Urban Land Institute and is a co-leader of the New York Chapter of Filipinos in Institutional Real Estate. Joel is a licensed real estate salesperson in the states of New York and New Jersey.