Michelle Buckley: One Woman, One Shop, 25 Years in Retail

Welcome to this episode of The Tori Nook Talk Show! In this episode, Tori sits down with Michelle Buckley, principal and founder of Buckley Commercial Real Estate in Charlotte, an exclusive retail tenant rep and buyer rep serving the Carolinas.

Michelle founded the firm in 2013 after 16 years at national, regional and boutique brokerages, and has spent nearly 25 years in site selection, land acquisition, ground up development, investment sale acquisitions and leasing. She has been an ICSC member since 2001, served on the Charlotte Region Commercial Board of Realtors, and co-chairs the virtual lunch and learns for The Pipeline.

Retail is in Michelle’s blood. Her father started as a stock boy at Marshalls and spent 38 years there, finishing as a regional VP who oversaw nearly 200 stores. Her mother was a buyer for a family-owned children’s clothing store in New England, and her great-grandparents ran the Italian restaurant that was the heartbeat of their small Massachusetts town. Everyone told her not to go into retail.

They discuss cold calling, reading leases, going out on her own, and the lead her boss nearly threw away.

🎯 Topics covered:

Growing up with retail as dinner table talk
Turning down commercial real estate the first time
Getting hired at a country club interview
Learning retail with no mentor and no internet
Placing Sally Beauty in 44 Carolinas locations
Moving Bombay Company out of the malls
Reading leases until she knew too much
A throwaway lead worth a 27-year relationship
Four credit unions and a million in fees
Why she felt paralyzed at her last firm
The partnership conversation that ended it
Opening her own shop out of adrenaline
Why every client came with her
Hiring a coach as her best investment
The Pipeline and women in retail real estate