WHO BENEFITS?
Choose a role that best fits your circumstances
FROM
Land
Owners
For raw land owners, Land4ge is a source of ideas and a ‘how-to’ process. Whether deciding to sell, identify opportunity, develop, or re-purpose, Land4ge offers the means to undertake the task. This commitment includes the most challenging of sites as well. It addresses questions: If a property is dormant, should it remain so? Has value appreciated? Is the best plan to continue to hold – i.e., “land bank” – or is it time for a change, considering the possible ‘lost opportunity’ costs and rising taxes, et al.? Finally, what is the potential for development or redevelopment? Is it sufficient to attract a buyer or the build-out financing: realizing latent value?
Land4ge explores all prospects, delivering a thorough plan. Supported by research, with a property’s productivity ‘top-of-mind’, Land4ge employs a common-sense approach. The process focuses on a property’s ‘optimal use’, which does not always match the more common: “highest & best use” rule. Instead, it takes the view that a ‘high-rise’ may not be the best choice despite applicable zoning bylaws allowing a high-rise building.
Therefore, considering all that impacts a project, Land4ge focuses on
‘the achievable’. This centers on ‘the good that is’ versus all the wonderful that ‘might be’! It recognizes that nothing can be taken for granted. For example, instead of merely accepting the convention that a Community’s Utility Services will be made available, Land4ge explores the options, verifying that an optimal course of action* is taken. Considerations range from the physical, such as geotechnical stability or how ‘utility services’ are accessed, to legal matters like title issues and investment/ownership structure. Property enhancement is a meticulous process guided by, if not entirely, complying with all community plans and zoning changes. Where appropriate, it may mount a challenge or seek an amendment, all in pursuit of the ‘most appropriate’ solution for all stakeholders.
*As an example of this, navigate to “Early Projects” – scroll down to Rose Hill South
Concurrently Land4ge will assess all economic prospects and constraints. This closely relates to ‘market definition’ – confirmed if identified, created if not. In turn, it will establish how a project is structured. Building a building is one thing; assuring that there is an end-user is quite another, as is the mustering of and method to secure the necessary funding.
All this starts with a profile of the end-use/occupant mix: the general nature of the location and neighbourhood and, of course, all the particulars relating to the subject parcel. Governed by existing build-out rules versus the likelihood of change (e.g. ‘rezoning’), aggregate site conditions and how these relate to market circumstances refine the choice of building type. The allocation of space (functional vs. common/open space) and required versus optional building amenities, not to dismiss the aesthetic appeal, are all key. Each and every element is influenced by a complete understanding of a target market’s psychographic and demographic makeup – i.e., who’s the customer?
Not every landholder is thoroughly familiar will these matters. Needed, therefore, is a resource that responds.
Needed is Land4ge!
Property
Holders
For property holders frustrated with assets not performing as they should, Land4ge is a support facility. It tackles standing property issues similar to how it treats raw land sites. A property that is not as productive as it should be is usually problematic. The laws of ever-diminishing return soon take their toll. But answers can be elusive, especially in a world with ever-changing
economic conditions. As property values continue to appreciate, although this has benefited many over the years, prices have also increased to where the higher values are creating their own purchase and finance challenges.
We list some of these as follows, with Land4ge frequently providing answers!
Many businesses have had to admit defeat due to COVID and languishing markets. Viability is further at risk when market forces push costs beyond a property user's ability to pay − evidenced by more tenants abandoning premises due to ever-rising retail lease rates. These increases may be driven by changing market dynamics, the influences of a growing population, the impact of taxation policies or shifting land-use rules, not to ignore the effects of what has been long-appreciating underlying land values. While rising costs may be passed on, those paying the bills will likely balk at some point. Customers will soon resist, visiting less often when prices rise beyond reason. In time, once relied-upon revenues diminish, and the sustainability of affected businesses (retail shops, commercial establishments or industrial plants) begins their decline, forcing owners to move or close their businesses entirely. Finally, what to do when, as absurd as it sounds, a municipality imposes a speculation or vacancy tax – or claims rights to the air space above a property? Candidly: if this is the case... and an owner-client resists redeveloping the property... Land4ge may find it difficult finding a solution. [Continue a little further on this page for a possible exception.*]
Finding a new user willing to replace the occupants forced out of a space, whether rented, leased or freehold, is problematic in the environment described. Citing the age and condition of most older buildings, any new tenant will be reluctant, if not unable, to justify the higher costs. Well-maintained or not, owners of such properties soon discover it is difficult to attract quality tenants; needed to keep a property economically viable: A Triple-A tenant wants Triple-A space!
Furthermore, when a property no longer 'conforms' to what the Local Jurisdiction wants for the future, the pressure for change is on. A revised Community Plan may call for a street corridor to be re-zoned as Mid-rise, Multi-Family, and within that mix, it may allow some ground floor Commercial. This will soon transform the route, which in the past may only have seen Three-story Walk-ups interspersed with Single Story Retail populate the neighbourhood − but now no longer lining up with the designated use. As a result, speculators move to analyze the affected area, seeking latent gains. Calculating 'residual land values' (determined by subtracting total estimated development costs from gross anticipated project sale revenues) exposes the potential likely followed by exerting pressure on property owners to sell. Or? Soon tax assessments increase, creating concern and presumably some urgency amongst owners as to what to do.
Another example generating change may be the City wanting to tidy up their fringe industrial lands, seeking to reinvigorate these areas with Upscale Infill. Here, again, underlying land values soon rise. While no doubt improving the tax roll, owners are again left with little choice but to pass on the added costs − to the where, of late, smaller or marginal users are forced from their properties. As individual sites are 'picked off' by first-in developers, it is usually futile to try and compete, maintaining the status quo or hoping for a tenant that will pay more.
*An exception might be a refurbished Heritage site with a nostalgic appeal to attract users.
So what can Land4ge do? As new policy dynamics (e.g., increased density, etc.) take effect, frequently, it is only dramatic change that is the answer. Seeking to "work the solution as opposed to the problem", Land4ge researches possibilities, following with a plan that fits. Situations differ, but every project is comprehensive. Staying with the 'street corridor' example (Mid-Rise or Multi-Use), Land4ge is apt to lay out a strategy combining concept design and financial analysis, launching the approval process while identifying prospective developers or financiers. An inherent selling feature of this sample project is its 'elemental scope' and how presales of the upper-floor residential units will attract tenants for the lower commercial/office floors (employees closer at hand). Conversely, and collectively, all this patronage is then delivered to the ground-floor store owners, who are, in turn, easily persuaded to take up retail space. The entire process self-creates a market.
With more amenities, a modern building holds greater appeal for all, closing the marketing loop. But where do all the uprooted small businesses go now that these changes have victimized them? Land4ge's predecessor (LandScope), in one case, solved this by relocating such orphans. It 'repurposed' an old industrial site to assemble common-purpose users (tenants-in-common).]
Citing the 'housing crisis', many municipalities have increased densities within specific neighbourhoods. Although the foresight of this policy may come into question as diversity within their economic base diminishes, many commercial and industrial areas are hell-bent on being transformed. Increasing the units per acre meant alleviating the 'housing shortage'. However, as new and expensive construction supplanted what existed, neighbourhoods were being outpriced, also displacing the folks that previously lived and worked there. The residents of a soon-to-be-torn-down, walk-up apartment or the operators of a local corner store facing a similar fate will generally find the costs associated with any new space far too onerous. Not all are well-served, despite what City fathers may have intended.
Regardless of the challenge, Land4ge seeks and regularly finds solutions. As the few examples within this website present, these may be unorthodox. In the past, it has been this originality, however, that has provided the advantage.
For Real Estate Developers, Land4ge is a ‘source’... of opportunity. It identifies promising land parcels and exposes their potential, or it lays out plans to repurpose property that has outlived its usefulness. This is often in concert with investors wanting to participate in enhancing value. It is an exhaustive process focused on ‘unlocking the mystery’. In essence, it is an approach to 'using information creatively'.
Land4ge generally leaves the physical building process to others. It sees its role more as ‘establishing the need’. This involves defining market requirements and appropriate response: the use and suitable users (e.g., a manufacturer seeking new premises, regionally replicating ), planning of the development strategy to include the finance structure to, all together, achieve the desired result. Value is first sought within existing bylaws (e.g., subdividing municipally annexed acreage or revitalizing brownfield space*), thereby exposing and validating the possible.
Staying up to date − i.e., in touch with market activity − is critical. As an identified need drives one project, an active ‘builder-developer’ may post their requirements seeking another. Furthermore, as fortunes wane for one community, another may flourish (e.g., a Sawmill closure vs. an LNG Plant opening). The base premise is that Land4ge identifies potential and organizes value realization.
*Brownfields are abandoned, idle or underutilized commercial or industrial properties where past actions have caused environmental contamination but which still have the potential for redevelopment or other economic opportunities.
Investors
Land4ge is equally a producer of attractive investment opportunities. Those that have studied investment options will know that land and its improvements offer many advantages. It is tangible. Typically it appreciates, generating long-term value gains. Given a purpose, it provides an income source. It is of an infinite supply when including its redevelopment, assuring future demand.
Whether you are new to the world of property development or a seasoned veteran, Land4ge matches the opportunity to the requirement. It creates projects for sale or investment, in whole or its syndicated parts. Transactions include (without limitation) value-enhanced sales, co-ventures, or syndicated projects prepared as exempt-market offerings. Of course, every investment proposal is subject to local jurisdiction, securities rules and regulations.
advisors
With Land4ge, typical ‘rivals’ become allies. It recognizes that every project requires a team of skilled practitioners and advisors. Whether the necessary expertise is creative, technical or professional, Land4ge fosters collaboration. In this manner, it brings forth virgin projects or enhances what exists.
Land4ge advances opportunity. It cannot do it alone. Be it an architect or engineer, legal practitioner or financial analyst, creative designer or social media expert, Land4ge relies on the savvy input of others to bring a project to fruition. And, knowing projects often have their peculiarities, a broad spectrum of know-how is required, all contributing to the ultimate, value-enhanced goal.
Similarly, real estate professionals that introduce ‘raw opportunity’ or represent the post-development result will find that Land4ge complements. It invests in exposing a property’s intrinsic value, validating inherent potential, which is often obscure. This brings a market advantage that unleashes the possible, delivering the appeal necessary to attract a sought-for buyer. It may only provide the ‘marketing catalyst’ (reason for being), but just as often it will solve a key issue. Therefore the Land4ge output is also worthy of competent representation.
Although usually addressing property-owner needs, Land4ge will as well assist their advisors ‘What to do’ and property-use challenges that fall outside of a primary advisor’s area of expertise, are commonplace. Called upon for minimal input or much more, Land4ge can serve as a valued resource.