Image courtesy: Landmark Advisory Services

As the industrial real estate market continues to break records across Canada, manifesting in a historically low vacancy rate of below 2% across the country, it has never been more challenging for tenants to find space.

This lack of available supply is impacting businesses and forcing them to make tough and quick decisions, otherwise they risk losing locational opportunities. Given current market conditions, it has never been more important to engage real estate expertise and representation. Involving your real estate advisors in strategic planning pertaining to your real estate will allow for better preparation and more effective solutions.

Tenants need total confidence in their real estate partner as they maneuver this landlord-centric market and need to make informed decisions that directly impact their businesses.

How can tenants navigate this new reality and protect themselves in the process?

By understanding that most brokers and major brokerage firms represent clients on both the tenant and landlord side. This leads to inevitable conflicts of interest. In the current market that is so favourable to landlords, where does a brokerage, that is serving both landlords and tenants, place their loyalty?

By outsourcing some or all of your real estate needs to a tenant rep only firm that you trust handling all aspects of your portfolio from the negotiation of leases, real estate accounting, legal support, and more. This level of support is incredibly difficult to replicate in-house and, as an added bonus, it is not vulnerable to employee turnover and loss of legacy knowledge. This is even more critical in today’s labour market, which is proving to be as tight as the industrial real estate market.

By partnering with expert advisors that you can count on and who understand that One size does not fit all. It is of critical importance to tailor services to every client and approach each project with fresh eyes.

Landmark is a client-centric commercial real estate services firm that strives to be different by creating customized and dedicated partnerships. With over 30 years of experience in the Canadian commercial real estate industry, Landmark has developed a unique business model which benefits entirely the tenant and their unique needs, ensuring that there is never a conflict of interest.

This business model has helped Landmark recently secure the renewal of important contracts with Sonepar Canada and Belron Canada, two industry-leading organizations.

Landmark’s integrated service model

Landmark is structured differently from traditional real estate brokerages. Our integrated service model provides clients with access to a multi-disciplinary team, all operating within the same ecosystem.

Our service offering is comprised of lease administration and audit, transaction management, project management, facility maintenance, market intelligence, and legal & advisory services working as a single integrated unit, leveraging the expertise and knowledge of each department to provide greater value to clients for every project all while also leveraging our clients’ strong covenants.

Our teams are not governed by separate hierarchies and P&Ls, conflicting incentive structures, or siloed services deployed from different geographic regions. We are an ecosystem leveraging services and knowledge across the organization, all for a single common purpose: to fully integrate into our clients’ operations and support them as their trusted real estate department.

Landmark’s coverage

Canada is a large country with a myriad of different market types coast-to-coast. Landmark has incredible coverage throughout due to a client base that occupies premises in over 400 Canadian markets, and the ability to partner with best-in-class brokers, when necessary, on each project.  Alternatively, larger brokerage firms are constrained to their own networks resulting in more limited coverage.

Landmark can partner with anyone,  based on unique market, asset, and project types; major brokerages, local independent firms, and the SIOR and Exis Global networks. This includes access to smaller local independent firms in tertiary markets, which demand a unique, flexible, creative and detailed approach to finding space. All the while, Landmark remains the single point of contact for the tenant.

Finding the best home for your business in a small market can take time due to a lack of inventory and unsophisticated stakeholders. Landmark uses a two-pronged approach that combines a long-term and a short-term strategy, allowing clients to operate their businesses while not compromising on the long-term future needs of their operations.

Contract renewal

Being a tenant-focused alternative to the standard brokerage model with extensive and integrated services has helped Landmark develop long-term partnerships with exceptional companies throughout the country. We are proud and excited to announce that Landmark has signed two exclusive renewal contracts: a four-year contract renewal with Sonepar Canada and a three-year renewal contract with Belron Canada, both effective January 1^st, 2022.

Sonepar Canada, is a member of the Sonepar Group, Canada’s largest privately held B2B distribution of electrical products, solutions, and related services. In Canada, they are represented in nine provinces by Dixon Electric, Gescan, Lumen, MGM Electric, Sesco, Texcan and Vallen. Sonepar Canada has over 1800 employees working out of over 100 offices between their distinctive brands. The management of their Canadian real estate portfolio has been performed exclusively by Landmark for more than 28 years.

Belron Canada, an exclusive client of Landmark since 2015, is an industry leader in vehicle glass repair, replacement and recalibration with over 250 locations Canada-wide.

Landmark is excited to continue serving these exceptional clients, amongst our stable of other national and regional clients, and working to protect their real estate interests during these challenging times. These contract renewals are a testament to the strength of Landmark’s unique business model and what it means to ‘Partner Smarter’.