CHALLENGE
The client purchased 20+ acres of land in the extra territorial jurisdiction of Stafford. The client was a former tenant of mine that was in the window covering business but had a background in home construction. He had a limited idea of what to build but after a few conversations, we decided to build a 20,000 SF office/warehouse with both grade and dock well loading. The plan was to sell the building, build another and sell it also. Since the name of the street, we were building on was Success Court, we figured we wouldn't have any problem with a sale. Unfortunately, the timing was not good, and the sale never materialized. Our challenge was an empty 20,000 SF building sitting on 20+ acres of land.

STRATEGY
We decided to split the 20,000 SF in half and offer it for lease instead of sale. The building leased very quickly as 2-10,000 SF spaces. We decided to try it again and built another 20,000 SF identical building across the street, split it in half and also leased it quickly. We used the same concept and built 4 more 20,000 SF buildings and all were leased. We also realized that not every business needs 10,000 SF of space. Some need more and some need less. As a result, we built another 4- 20,000 SF buildings but divided them into 5,000 SF increments. We also built a 40,000 SF building and divided that building into 2-20,000 SF spaces.

RESULTS
The project was named Summer Park Business Center because it straddles Summer Park Street with buildings on both sides. At this time, it is 100% occupied by tenants who are in the food distribution, fitness, health and an assortment of other types of businesses. It is rare that we have a vacancy and when we do, it is usually leased within a month or two. At the same time, we have been able to steadily increase rents.