How A 9-Year Strata Land Assembly Crisis Was Quickly And Effectively Resolved Through Solution-Focused Practices
KLEIN GROUP CASE STUDY
How A 9-Year Land Assembly Crisis Was Quickly And Effectively Resolved Through Solution-Focused Practices
Taylorwood Place
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Taylorwood Place was a bare land strata consisting of 21 detached homes across 6.1 acres of land at the corner of Taylor Way and Keith Road in West Vancouver. Royal LePage Klein Group Commercial was retained by the Strata Council to sell the property, after multiple failed unrepresented attempts to work with developers and developers’ brokers directly. It required us to develop strategies for assembling Taylorwood’s owners and city officials, as well as provide legal frameworks and manage a variety of stakeholder interests throughout the project. The Klein Group successfully completed the sale through a competitive bid process.
THE CHALLENGE
Unfortunately, there were three failed attempts to sell Taylorwood by brokerages who were representing developer interests rather than those of the owners. In fact, the brokerages never initiated a competitive bid process in order to maximize Taylorwood’s sale price. Individual offers from developers were brought to owners with the enticement of no brokerage fees. As a result, the project – situated in a prime location with many potential benefits for the existing owners, developers and future owners alike – sat in limbo for nine years. Not surprisingly, the residents became quite frustrated, disheartened and worried about the ultimate outcome of their land assembly, as well as concerned about the value of their homes due to their gradually falling into disrepair. Owners were not able to make decisions about common property upgrades or improvements to their own homes.
SOLUTIONS AND OUTCOMES
The Klein Group has overseen many land and strata assemblies. And so, having been referred by members of another strata for whom we had successfully brokered a sale, we convened a project meeting with Taylorwood’s Strata Council. After interviewing multiple brokerages for representation, the Council selected Klein Group as a result of our extensive and detailed presentation, which began with two facets:
• A thorough risk assessment process, and;
• The creation, with a highly-experienced legal team, of a specialized framework to protect the interests of Taylorwood’s owners, cater to their individual needs, and provide for a quick turnaround.
As Eugen Klein put it, “Our vision for Taylorwood was to provide a strategy and project management system that would effectively deal with all the legal, financial and real estate related frameworks. To do that, a first-rate team was needed to represent the sellers’ best interests and provide excellent value at the same time. Land development can be extremely complicated and community stakeholders can affect land values and timing expectations as the process unfolds. Owners need a team beyond the brokerage, that we provide, that can mitigate those risks and work with them to ensure their interests are maximized.”.
The Klein Group then completed multi-scenario proforma analysis for detached homes, apartments, townhouses and mixed dwellings showcasing various density options. This was followed by an architect and the district planner taking a very close look at the property and providing detailed analysis of different building options. An implementation strategy was then developed in order to:
• Facilitate clear communications with the owners
• Set out clear expectations for building a successful assembly
• Custom-design a comprehensive marketing plan and create attractive collateral to garner the attention of developers
The key to selling Taylorwood was aligning the owners’ collective and individual best interests. As Dean Thomas, another highly-experienced Land Assembly and Commercial Real Estate specialist put it: “In land assemblies the more owners increase their willingness to work together, the greater the value we can find them in the market. In some cases we are able to negotiate a better option for the community and realize even greater value for our clients. Developers then perceive a greater stability in the project and professionalism in its representation. As a result they’re generally more interested and serious in their bidding”.
THE RESULTS
As well as being known for our high-quality, client-centric work, the Klein Group is also known for the speed and efficiency with which we can complete it. In the case of Taylorwood, we refined all the details, worked with our legal team, and spent two months aggressively marketing the property to more than 80 different local and overseas developers in order to secure the best possible price and terms for our client owners. Many of the developers were interested in the property ‘as is’, while others were interested on the condition of rezoning.
At the end of the day, our land development strategy ensured that Taylorwood owners’ investments were protected and that there were great incentives and further opportunities for any developer. The final result was that three above market offers were tabled and voted upon by the strata ownership. After a few rounds of negotations with all bids to maximize owners value, the best offer was chosen and the land was sold.
The great news is that the owners of Taylorwood received value well above their expectations and the property closed within one year of contract acceptance. For most real estate teams, the work would have stopped at the accepted offer – but not with the Klein Group. Our residential division was also able to provide effective relocation services across BC to most of the owners, many of whom chose to stay in West Vancouver. Others were provided with 4 months of free rent back while they waited to reinvest. Still others asked us to source other older stratas where above market gains could be realized over time. The result – a stress-free offer, relocation, and a significant increase in the value their received through the Klein Group’s work.
