Challenge: Ben Davis, the owner of The Sound-Wave, had a lease expiration coming up and wanted to see what was available to purchase. He wanted to evaluate staying at his current location with limited visibility or purchasing a building and moving. The option to expand at the current location was explored and was not a possibility. Ben's needs were unique as he needed retail showroom as well as warehouse work space. This combination is not common in our market. Visibility and signage was very important.
Action: Four properties were presented with high traffic visibility. Two properties were on the market and two were off market properties found by calling the owner or listing agent. These properties were observed during different times of the day to determine the traffic and noise factors. The first choice had too much road noise and it was determined that the traffic traveled by the property too fast, thus loosing potential customers. The second choice was a free standing building with retail and a small warehouse in the back portion of the property. The only difficulty was that there was a tenant in place with an expiration date past the date of Ben's current expiration.
Result: The free standing retail building was able to be purchased with the owner terminating the lease with the current tenant within a reasonable period of time after closing. The tenant vacated in time for the new owner to make a few improvements and move in prior to the expiration of his lease. The location is in close proximity to his current location so that his customers will be able to find him with greater visibility and exposure. Ben will be acquiring his first commercial property as an owner/occupant, achieving his primary objective of paying himself instead of a landlord.