Two adjacent property owners had owned and operated businesses from their properties for decades: one a gas station and the other an auto repair facility. Their properties, however, were of development size and were ideally located to take advantage of the developer appetite for Caltrain centric locations for new office buildings. We approached two owners with the idea that by selling the properties together as a combined offering, the properties would be large enough to justify a major office/residential development and they would receive a premium from the buyers if they combined their efforts. By combining and selling to a developer, the owners would pump up their sale price because the developer would be able to unlock density for the combined site.
We then created a marketing campaign to emphasize its development potential and targeted well-known developers with experience building on the Peninsula. After receiving multiple offers, we used this competition to negotiate the best terms to meet the sellers’ goals.