Case Study: Our Expertise Spells Success For Industrial Project Marketing

How Frontline Real Estate Services’ industrial division helps our developer clients succeed with full-scope project marketing and consulting. A case study of Langley Gateway by Denciti Development Corp.

From the beginning, Langley Gateway by Denciti Development Corp. had all the earmarks of a successful industrial strata project. We leveraged our expertise, far beyond the sale of the units, providing full scope project marketing and end-to-end service from acquisition guidance, project design input, and buyer care.

“Frontline brought us the opportunity, advised us on market demand and trends – which informed what we decided to build – and provided actionable market intel and advice through the entire development and sales process”

Volodya Gusak
President and Co-Founder
Denciti Development Corporation

North Langley with Langley Gateway pictured in the foreground
North Langley with Langley Gateway pictured in the foreground

Site Acquisition

In 2018, we presented Denciti with an opportunity to purchase a development site where Langley Gateway’s roots would begin. Our specialty is assisting our clients in understanding and realizing the value of potential opportunities. Recognizing this expertise, Denciti engaged us to collaborate on this project very early on where we were able to provide critical insights during the land acquisition stage.

While every developer has a specific due diligence process, at Frontline Real Estate Services (Frontline), we pride ourselves on the market intel we can deliver to our clients.  Our agents remain intertwined in daily transactions and, with our proprietary back-end systems, we often find ourselves one step ahead of the rest of the market. In fact, even when we are not involved, we frequently find ourselves assisting developers’ due diligence teams to underwrite deals.

 

Industrial Market Analysis

Each submarket is different and our geographic expertise, proprietary tools, and established relationships allow us to pinpoint which specific industrial product will be most successfully absorbed in any given area.

In the case of Langley Gateway, we recognized an absolute void of small bay strata in the area, as the last project of its kind was built in 2005. Having the opportunity to consult on the project at such an early stage brought great success, as Denciti was able to leverage our local market knowledge to determine what product would be in highest demand.

 

Building Design Input

Decisions during the design process are critical to ensuring product gaps in the market are met and a successful sales program is achieved. Given the demand for small bay strata, we worked with Denciti to conclude that two small bay warehouse buildings would allow for the highest and best use of the site. Additionally, we advised Denciti on key details of the industrial strata development, including:

  • Size/dimension of units
  • Mezzanine to ground floor ratio
  • Type of loading
  • Size of doors
  • Ceiling height
  • Power
  • Parking

With a market-driven design in place, our project marketing machine was well-equipped to run a seamless sales and marketing program for Denciti.

Watch the development journey in this video, highlighting construction progress from start to completion.

A Tailored Marketing Program

Our sales and marketing teams ran a solid program from the beginning for Denciti, providing comprehensive monthly updates prior to and during the sales process. This hands-on approach enables our clients to step back and focus on their expertise, development and construction.

In the early stages of Langley Gateway, our marketing team made each decision while considering the following key questions:

  • Who are we selling to?
  • Why are they buying?
  • Where are they coming from?

At Frontline, we understand buyer-focused questions must be answered prior to determining where a project fits within the product mix, and before any pricing or absorption conversations can take place. Going beyond general municipal, regional and global factors, intimate knowledge of demand trends, competing projects, and most importantly, industry-specific pain points are thoroughly analyzed.

 

Langley Gateway’s Project Marketing: Location, Location, Location

In the case of Langley Gateway, we identified the most probable buyers of small bay strata units and their unique motivations, enabling us to develop a creative project identity and custom marketing program. We chose to focus on the project’s most obvious unique selling point for these buyers: location.

This marketing campaign was extraordinarily successful. Every piece of branding and marketing, from the project name, to brochure, to videos, to social ad campaigns, focused on the location and the project’s position as the gateway to the surrounding region. We consistently framed the location to answer buyers’ questions regarding why buying at Langley Gateway would be an advantage to them and their businesses. Whether prioritizing shorter drive times for deliveries and service calls or enjoying proximity to their employees and customers, Langley Gateway was the ideal location for them.

At Frontline, we have a dedicated marketing department and a pool of specialist partners who expertly run all project and listing marketing. With a high ratio of support staff to each broker, Frontline’s brokers can concentrate their efforts on what they do best, negotiating the best deals for our clients. Internally, our back-end systems allow us to execute project marketing and sales seamlessly while continuing to support a robust portfolio of business.

Our sales and marketing program was built to create demand for Langley Gateway early on. Furthermore, a void in the market was catered to and the response was immediate. Accepted offers for all units were secured within four weeks of launching our sales program and the project was 100% presold prior to construction commencing.

The Langley Gateway listing video serves as an example of our buyer-focused marketing approach highlighting the location of the project.

The not-so-secret sauce

From our experience, every well-oiled developer has two main functions: acquisition and development.  Leave the sales and marketing to us. To learn more about Frontline Real Estate Services’ industrial project marketing services contact us today.

 

To learn more about Langley Gateway visit LangleyGatewayIndustrial.com and visit denciti.ca to learn more about Denciti Development Corp. and their future projects.

Todd Bohn

Personal Real Estate Corporation

Partner
Industrial
view profile

Braydon Hobbs

Personal Real Estate Corporation

Industrial Sales & Leasing
Industrial
view profile