St. Louis-headquartered CUSCO has launched as a commercial real estate platform focused on connecting national retailers with rural America.
According to the company, the platform will acquire and manage retail properties across in-demand rural markets while providing advisory services to national brands looking to expand into these regions. The company will target markets in the South, Southeast and Midwest.
CUSCO is founded by retail real estate professional John Cusumano, who has extensive experience in secondary and tertiary markets. He was previously vice president of real estate at MRP Capital Group, where he managed a team handling approximately 250 transactions per year, construction projects totaling $3 million per year, and helped navigate the company’s portfolio through the pandemic.
“Where most of my peers see ‘flyover country,’ I see a compelling supply/demand gap and significant opportunity to solve a problem,” said Cusumano. “Rural communities are no less in need of convenient access to their daily essentials than anyone else, and the brands I’ve worked with – including Five Below, AT&T, Great Clips, Jersey Mike’s, T-Mobile and EyeMart, among others – understand this and desire to get closer to the hearts of these areas. I have spent my career operating in these markets and working with national brands, and I look forward to building an institutional platform capable of helping brands effectively scale and delivering attractive risk-adjusted returns.”
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