Tori Nook is the owner and principal of Anchor Retail. With a mission to become a true business partner, providing market insight and retail expertise to help clients reach and exceed their goals, Tori has taken her venture, Anchor Retail, to the utmost stature. It specializes only in retail real estate, investment sales, and third-party property management for retail buildings and shopping centers. It is a woman-owned boutique retail and investment commercial real estate brokerage company with experienced brokers. It can do everything faster for its clients because Tori and her team do not have corporate red tape and layers of internal approvals that need to be done. The company represents retail and restaurant tenants, shopping center landlords, commercial real estate buyers, and sellers in Ohio, the Midwest, and across the United States. Since it is a boutique commercial real estate firm with over 100 years of combined experience, Tori and her team constantly work together to provide the best opportunities, sites, and deals for their clients. She takes pride in their work and the long-term relationships she and her team have created in the industry. This helps the company serve its clients better, as Anchor Retail utilizes an internal database system with tens of thousands of contacts, which helps it find the best location for the clients as well as sell or lease locations in a faster amount of time.
‘I spend money to make money’
Tori grew up and completed her education in Canfield, Ohio. She was only 19 when she received her Ohio real estate. She was still attending John Carroll University and started interning at commercial real estate brokerage firms at the same age. She started working full-time, specializing as a retail real estate broker, in her senior year of college at the age of 21. Then she graduated in 2020 with a degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing. She was with the same company for 13 years until the partners broke the alliance with that company. Later, she went to work for one partner for 2 years, and then she started her own brokerage company 7 years ago and has grown it ever since. She exclusively represents national and regional retailers and restaurants such as pOpshelf/Dollar General, Academy Sports, Covelli Enterprises dba Panera Bread, AutoZone, PetSmart, SKECHERS, Urban Air, and Bath & Body Works. She has been recognized as part of Crain’s Cleveland Business ‘40 under 40’, and their ‘Source Lunch’, and awarded ‘The Mother of the Bread’ award by Panera Bread for securing the largest number of sites nationally for them over the years. Currently, her firm is part of the national Realty Resource Network.
She has always believed in working hard, responding in a timely manner, having excellent communication skills, and treating people with respect. She asks a lot of questions, reads, networks, and listens to her clients needs. “I spend money to make money,” she also adds. Tori also surrounds herself with the best people to help and guide her, as well as being selective with the clients she works with.
“All we have is our time, and I am efficient with that resource as well as providing the best service to maintain the same great clients I have had for decades, and I only work with new clients on a referral basis,” she mentions. She will also not tolerate drama and disrespect from colleagues and clients. “Life is too short to work in any toxic environment or with toxic people who drag you or your company down. I feel that is why I am where I am today. Tori also likes to donate her money and time to various charities as well as volunteer on a board for a strong cause, which she reckons is Providence House, which is a crisis nursery that has helped thousands of women and children get on their feet and keep children out of the foster care system.
Tori’s current focus is handling projects like rolling out Academy Sports in Northern Ohio and SKECHERS throughout Ohio and redoing Anchor Retail’s website. She luckily got a lot off her plate in the past 2 years as initiatives that she wants to focus on just growing Anchor Retail and our sales now.
"When you excel, your business and overall life will too. You attract the energy you imagine."
The mentor one needs
Being able to mentor the newer agents in her office, Tori finds joy in assisting young men and aspiring women leaders because there are barely any in the industry. She cannot believe what a flexible and lucrative career in commercial real estate brokerage is and that more women do not join this industry. Plus, successful clients and well-run companies value women because they are organized, likeable, tenacious, hard-working, dependable, and phenomenal at what they do. “They excel fast, from what I have seen. I would love to have more come and work at Anchor Retail,” she adds. She advises budding women leaders to have integrity, a strong work ethic, and to care about the people they lead and their clients. It’s important to create a positive work environment and have the tools others need to succeed on the team.
Tori entails that every leader must procure productive advice from established leaders. She suggests they follow through with whatever they start, be dependable, work hard, listen to their intuition, and most importantly, their hearts. She also advises being kind to others, demanding respect, leaving toxic situations, taking care of your spiritual, mental, and physical selves, knowing you can succeed at whatever you want to do in life, and finding the right people to support you on your journey.
She believes that ‘Manifestation’ is real. “Know what you want and take action towards your intentions,” she adds. Tori also states that things may take time, but they will happen if you are determined and envision them clearly. And if certain things do not happen, then know they’re not meant to be and move on to something else. With reliable advice, “There are many great options and a great life out there for you,” she adds. Lastly, she suggests female budding leaders focus on learning and growing themselves on a daily basis, have high self-worth, and practice self-care. “When you excel, your business and overall life will too. You attract the energy you imagine,” she concludes.
