Challenge:
Voit Real Estate Services was engaged by Ropak to provide consulting to sell their option to purchase. Ropak Corporation was presented with an option to purchase its leased 203,850 square foot building with two acres of excess land. The additional land had hazardous materials under it that required mitigation.
Solution:
Voit recommended a new five-year lease for the entire building, as well as purchasing and selling the property in a double escrow, rather than selling the option to purchase. Voit consulted with some of its strategic alliance partners, and sought to resolve the mitigation with the County of Los Angeles.
Result:
Voit was able to achieve a No Further Action notice from the County of Los Angeles on the environmental challenge. The property then became very appealing to investors. In the double escrow, Ropak Corporation purchased the building at the option price of $6.3 million and at the same time sold it for over $13 million giving Ropak a profit of over $6 million. Based on the success of this first assignment, Voit was further engaged to sublease a facility in Vancouver, Canada; sell the existing corporate headquarters; and lease two warehouse locations for Ropak.