The red-hot appeal of Simcoe County shows no signs of slowing down. The Maven Commercial Real Estate team is well positioned to act as an outsourced real estate department for a diverse array of high-net-worth investors and business leaders in the region.
From site selection to construction consultation, from valuation opinions through leasing, acquisitions, and dispositions, they handle all real estate business interests so that you can spend more time at the cottage relaxing.
“Simcoe-Muskoka is a great, thriving area. Businesses need someone with a very good nose for finding which properties will outperform the others,” says Stephanie Maye, who co-founded Maven Commercial Real Estate with Blair Maye, her husband.
Commercial real estate and community development are inextricably linked, she says. Basic employment leads the way locally in order for people to want to relocate. And then housing development and retail services follow from there.
Maven specializes in helping businesses solve all their real estate challenges, no matter how complex.
“We worked with one client in the distribution sector who had many must-haves,” Stephanie recalls, by way of example. “We had sold them their building only a few years before, but they needed a growth plan – stat. We had to get creative in the tight market which was at two percent vacancy (it’s now much lower than that), recommending that they build and build extra. Because timing was crucial to smooth execution, all the assumptions had to be spot on in order to keep their robust operation moving.”
“Equipped with our market knowledge, we were able to help them behind the scenes by securing a proper land parcel, advising on the specs of their new build, selling their current facility while negotiating a lease-back, obtaining temporary warehouse space, and then pre-leasing the excess 30,000 sq. ft. in their new building. Oh and we were able to provide a defensible position for them with their appraisal when it came time to secure their final financing on the completed project.”
Needless to say, the client was very happy to have pulled off moving into a facility with four times as much space!
Local matters
Long-term relationships power the success stories at Maven. Stephanie herself is a seventh-generation resident of the area, and her team marries deep market knowledge with the business interests of investors coming from outside Simcoe-Muskoka. It makes the entire transaction flow more smoothly.
“Banks love working on the deals we put together with our clients because we’ve already shown how the buyer’s financing will likely be underwritten. The client feels good about the numbers we present because they can see we’re super-specialized in understanding the business side of real estate.”
In addition to being Broker of Record, Stephanie is internationally recognized as a Certified Commercial Investment Real Estate specialist (CCIM) in analysis and asset management, trained in understanding how to best position your investment portfolio through real estate cycles to maximize profits.
Educating clients
In commercial real estate, it’s important to recognize when it’s time to adapt and change your holdings.
“Real estate is only an asset inasmuch as it helps you. The moment it’s no longer doing all the things that you need it to do, it’s not an asset,” says Stephanie.
A case in point: If the owner of a fully tenanted building has maxed out the cash flow potential on a building, she may wish to purchase vacant land as an investment that no longer “talks back.” Maven then creates a plan for an alternative real estate investment that appeals to her new needs and interests.
Farmers, some of the most astute businesspeople in the area, have valuable land that may not be serving their own economic needs after a point. Maven, understanding varying tax structures, will work with them and their advisors on creating solid deal structures for their next phase of life.
If retirement is approaching and the next generation is not interested in taking over the farm, a long-time landowner may prefer to purchase a plaza or similar cashflow-producing property that protects their capital and generates income without physically demanding labour, especially if professional management is overseeing it.
“In each person’s life there is a reason to sell as well as a reason to buy. It’s about structuring a deal that allows the business owner or real estate investors to withstand the rises and falls in the market temperature.”
In an inflationary environment, real estate is a tangible asset that can protect capital in a way the stock market might not. And, merged with the visionary mindset that business entrepreneurs possess – that ability to foresee what others don’t yet see – commercial real estate is highly creative. It examines the future stories of places like Alliston, Innisfil, Midland, Collingwood, Orillia and helps to shape them.
Commercial investing looks at rising needs for certain products, for types of housing in growing communities, for services that answer the shifting needs of local demographics.
“Investing in real estate is a form of calculated faith,” Stephanie says with a smile. “We take care of the calculations so the entrepreneur can be faithful to their vision.”
TEXT MARNIE WOODROW | PHOTOS ANDREW FEARMAN
