Smart Business Magazine, November 2019

32 Smart Business Cleveland November 2019 Listen and learn One of the biggest trends in commercial real estate is property owners who want to reduce their footprint Technology and flexible working arrangements are just two factors that allow companies to function with less space than theyve typically needed Its a need that creates big opportunities for Semarjian to put his problem solving skills to work There are a lot of deals sitting on the sidelines today because somebody doesnt know what to do with what will become their vacant or surplus real estate Semarjian says They really need a new location but they cant afford both properties So there are a lot of companies floating around in their buildings and not using all their space They might be in a 500000 square foot building or 1 millionsquare foot building and effectively using 50 percent of their footprint Companies in this situation that dont want the cost and disruption of relocating can do whats known in real estate circles as a sale and partial leaseback Well go in and write them a check for their building put in the capital to get them effective on the side Semarjian says Well get them operational and functioning in their facility and then put the capital in to bring in another tenant or two We did that with Lockheed Martin Corp and with American Greetings It doesnt cost more it saves them money and it gives them a check Yet the building doesnt sit around and get neglected Its all problem solving but its a great business model It all begins with the simple act of listening Semarjian says Talk to potential clients and learn their issues Is it that youre in multiple facilities and need to get under one roof he says Is it that youre paying too much in rent somewhere and dont need that level of facility Is it that you need to sell your building and get cash so you can put it into your business and focus on buying plant equipment and hiring people versus just being in a static real estate transaction Listening is very important The key for ICP Semarjian says is the companys willingness to be creative in its solutions and not stick to a tried and true template to get a job done Were not an institution with this box where everything is defined and has to go in it perfectly he says Our scenarios although it might look like there are a lot of large industrial facilities in our portfolio theyve been acquired in a lot of different ways with different reasons and strategies Being creative and not saying no but listening to the problems whether its a tenant or a seller and trying to solve those problems I think that really gives us a leg up If we cant see the opportunity in five minutes we move on CHRISTOPHER S SEMARJIAN OWNER INDUSTRIAL COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES LLC Born Lyndhurst Education Bachelors degree in business administration Kent State University Semarjian on Clevelands commercial real estate market What I like about Cleveland is its a very diverse industrial base Its not completely tied to automotive or aerospace or medical Its a nice melting pot Because its not a big institutional market you dont get the national players coming in and wanting to build a bunch of spec which I think is fantastic We have enough entrepreneurs in town who continue to start new companies who continue to grow their companies from maybe a smaller mid sized to a larger company Its kind of a homegrown garden Semarjian on dealing with challenges Sometimes we buy things at a discount because they dont quite fit the market or there are challenges on the credit side with tenants in the buildings Sometimes there are environmental issues So really its being more opportunistic than defining a hard line of what we want to buy You see a lot of institutional real estate owners who have a very defined strategy on what theyll purchase Well buy large industrial large office credit challenged or environmentally challenged We bought one huge land parcel out in Wixom Michigan It was a former Ford plant that was torn down but the pad was still there So we decided to buy that take the pad out and repurpose the land for new industrial facilities Thats working out extremely well Were able to think a little more outside of the box NAME Christopher S Semarjian TITLE Owner COMPANY Industrial Commercial Properties LLC THE FILE COVER STORY INDUSTRIAL COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES LLC