When you mention curb appeal, most people tend to think immediately of residential properties—yet its importance to retail stores, restaurants, and service-based businesses is invaluable. About 70% of first-time sales at golf courses, lodging facilities, restaurants, wineries and other retail outlets happen because of curb appeal.
So, don’t overlook your commercial property’s exterior appearance. Instead, make use of techniques to boost it, so you get the most value for your real estate investment.
Why You Should Care about Curb Appeal?
There are a number of ways that an attractive look can ensure your commercial property is giving you a strong return on your investment.
1. It’s Key to Attracting Customers
How a business looks on the outside can either draw in customers or push them away. Ask consumers, and they’ll admit that the condition of your parking lot and sidewalk plays a strong role in whether they stop in and give you their business. If they don’t feel comfortable looking at your property, they are less likely to want to spend money there.
2. It Boosts What You Can Ask for in Rent
An attractive, well-cared-for property is a smart investment because tenants care about issues such as cleanliness, modern fixtures, and safety. Details like safe parking lot lighting, smooth new pavement, and beautiful trees and flower beds attract tenants who are willing to pay more to rent space in your commercial building.
3. It Can Lessen Liability Issues
Eye-catching curb appeal and safe outdoor spaces tend to go hand-in-hand. A freshly paved parking area looks nice—and it’s also easier to navigate, which helps to prevent parking lot accidents. A smooth, well-lit sidewalk is attractive—and it also is safer for pedestrians, preventing falls and injuries.
For these reasons and more, curb appeal should definitely be on your list of must-do maintenance items if you want to get the most value out of your commercial property.
9 Steps to Improve Commercial Curb Appeal
So, what can you do to increase your business’s curb appeal? Invest in these 10 ways for improving your commercial property’s attractiveness to customers and tenants.
1. Fix Walkways and Stairs
Sidewalks and stairs that have seen better days not only pose tripping hazards and liability risks, but also keep potential customers from entering your business. Fixing the damage will make your property more appealing and give you a safer business.
2. Keep Windows Clean and Repaired
Dirty, old, broken windows make a property look unappealing and cause customers and tenants to turn away. But glistening, working windows look great and promise visitors a sunny environment filled with refreshing natural light.
3. Increase Welcoming and Visible Signage
Customers need to be able to find your business. Signs should be clean, clear, up-to-date and large enough to be read from the street, highway, nearest sidewalk, and anywhere else people are traveling nearby.
4. Boost Landscaping Where Possible
Not all business locations are created equal, and yours may have limited opportunities for landscaping. But do what you can to maximize what you have. Keep any grass green and trimmed. Add some bushes, flowers, landscaping boulders, or a rock garden to make the storefront more inviting and visually pleasing. Any business that looks beautiful on the outside attracts people to come inside.
5. Add Additional Lighting
Installing new exterior light fixtures produces an extra element of style, as well as a sense of safety, which significantly improves your business’s nighttime curb appeal. New LED lights can help customers get in and out of their cars safely. Additional pathway lighting adds to curb appeal too, beautifying the path to your business as customers approach your building.
6. Tidy Up Parking Lots and Sidewalks
Your parking lot is one of the first things potential customers see, so keeping it neat and presentable is one of the easiest ways you can improve your commercial property’s visual appeal. Pick up trash daily, and hire someone to keep things clean. If your parking lot (or sidewalk) is full of holes and patchy areas, bring in a professional to repair or replace the damaged pavement. Keep parking lot lines painted for a fresh, attractive look.
7. Repaint Your Building
Everything else about your business’s storefront may be up to date and appealing, but a business with cracked exterior paint can have a lasting negative impression. However, an updated paint job on your commercial building will dramatically improve curb appeal and attract new customers.
8. Rotate Seasonal Decor
Holiday lights, fall decor, patriotic or other types of flags, and other kinds of seasonal decor can be a quick way to keep your commercial property looking fresh from one time of the year to another. Just keep in mind that failing to rotate the seasonal decorations with the proper timing, either putting them up too early or keeping them up too long, can be off-putting to some customers visiting your business.
9. Spruce Up Your Front Entrance
A business’s front door makes a strong impression on potential and regular customers alike. If it’s been decades since your entryway has received any attention, sprucing it up is a good way to add to your property’s curb appeal. Adding a new door doesn’t have to be the only option. Freshen up your company’s entrance by giving it a new coat of vibrant paint, and add some lovely décor.
Invest in Attractive, Safe Concrete Parking and Sidewalks
Boost your commercial property’s curb appeal with smooth, good-looking concrete for parking areas, walkways and other outdoor spaces. At R&M Concrete, we specialize in delighting Tulsa area homes and businesses with beautiful, durable surfaces. See how our commercial concrete solutions will benefit your property and create lasting value.
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