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Rack Room Shoes Continues to Benefit from Use of AMTdirect for ‘Active’ Real Estate Management


CHARLOTTE, NC - Business Wire/AMTdirect announced today that Rack Room Shoes continues to enjoy enhanced control and knowledge of its real estate portfolio through its four-year use of AMTdirect.

Rack Room Shoes found it increasingly difficult to efficiently track key lease terms and dates prior to implementing AMTdirect. Rack Room relied upon a server-based application that did not link corporate departments responsible for managing leases. Legal, Real Estate and Finance departments managed Rack Room’s lease information through a series of spreadsheets consisting of data gathered from the server-based application.

After an extensive process with another application, Rack Room decided it was time to switch and selected AMTdirect as its commercial location and lease information solution. Data related to its then 350 stores was abstracted into AMTdirect by AMT’s Professional Services Group (PSG) beginning in June 2002. AMTdirect’s PSG team of real estate attorneys, accountants, paralegals and lease managers entered only the data Rack Room requested into AMTdirect.

The PSG team performed an audit of Rack Room’s data in tandem with its abstraction project providing Rack Room with a comprehensive review of its key lease terms. AMTdirect uncovered several aspects of Rack Room’s lease portfolio that impacted it financially during the process. Many leases were identified as being in holdover status alerting Rack Room’s legal, real estate and lease administration departments to the locations in the greatest need of attention. This also allowed them to better manage renewals on a go-forward basis.

According to Margie Lee, Rack Room’s Real Estate Manager, “We were able to look at termination rights across our portfolio, see what time frames and windows they were tied to and then walk away from the stores where we were losing money. Those savings were $1.2 million in round numbers, and this just in the first 24 months of implementation.” Rack Room also saved roughly $380,000 by enforcing rent reductions permitted by the leases for landlord violation of key retail restrictions, such as co-tenancy clauses.

By utilizing AMTdirect as a unifying informational tool across corporate departments, Rack Room currently manages its real estate portfolio in an efficient and seamless manner. According to Ms. Lee, “The solution has entirely changed the way we do business when it comes to lease administration and legal functions. It has made us more proactive in the way we deal with this important side of our business.” Margie and Peter discussed their success with AMTdirect in a recent article in “Retail Technology Quarterly.”

Retail Technology Quarterly's Article on Rack Room's use of AMT direct - Click Here


About AMTdirect

AMTdirect, founded in 1996 and celebrating its 10-year anniversary, is the leading provider of On-Demand Real Estate solutions to the corporate and commercial real estate industries. As the only true turn-key provider of technology and consulting services, AMTdirect is an industry leader in property and lease administration. Services include lease abstraction, due diligence, data imaging, data conversion, and accounting system conversions. Representative clients include Enterprise Rent A Car, Dow Chemical, Ingersol Rand, PF Changs, BB&T, Lowe’s Companies, Inc. and Duke University.

For more information, visit us on the web at www.amtdirect.com, email us sales@amtdirect.com, or call our Sales Team at (888) 551-4268.


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