Vacant Office Building

This approximately 110,000 sf, former AT&T call center building in Livonia, Michigan had been vacant for several years.

Livoinia, MI
Former AT&T Call Center
Privately Owned Real Estate
Sale Price: $736,700

Business Challenge

This approximately 110,000 sf, former AT&T call center building in Livonia, Michigan had been vacant for several years. Built in 1972, It required a lot of capital to comply with current code enforcement issues. The building was situated in an industrial area, well outside of the office submarket of Livonia; this made it very difficult to determine market value as there were no truly comparable, recent sales to be used in pricing the property. Prior to listing with AW, the building had been marketed for sale for three years, during which time there was limited interest from buyers.

Solution

The AW team implemented a multi-state targeted marketing plan to generate a higher level of interest from both possible end users and investors. The plan included marketing the property with an attractive opening bid (the seller had to have reasonable expectations in terms of pricing) and an aggressive target marketing and advertising plan aimed at increasing awareness on both the local and regional levels.

Results

Initially, the property received solid interest, but no bids. Two months later, the seller agreed to reduce the suggested opening bid. This generated a bidding war that resulted in three bids from qualified bidders. The initial bids received were close in price–ranging from $550,000 to $600,000–which indicated that they were close to the true market value of the property. After the AW team negotiated with each bidder and called for best and final bids, a sale price of $736,700 was achieved.
- CLIENT TESTIMONIAL

I recommend AW! I was having a difficult time selling a 110,000 square foot vacant office building (built in 1972) in Livonia, Michigan. After more than two dozen tours with qualified investors and users, nobody was willing to make an offer at the list price, or even near the price. After two years of marketing, I contacted Diana Peterson to assist in marketing the property through an auction. The concept of an attractive suggested opening bid, with a date certain bid and aggressive marketing, created the demand we were looking for. At the auction date, we received two offers. We were able to bid up the offers. The selected bidder wired a non-refundable deposit and closed within 30 days. The auction process and AW was the key to the closing.

Steve EisenshtadtSIOR, CCIM, JD Senior Vice President - Friedman Integrated Real Estate Solutions