Who is your landlord? Given Boise’s slow but steady commercial growth, we don’t see the headline grabbing developments popping up to attract out of state developers. So we remain largely a locally controlled market with a few large players and many smaller, ‘one-off’ owners/investors. It is wise to understand the motivations and capabilities of your landlord before signing a long term lease.
- Boise’s only REIT (real estate investment trust) is the Washington Group Plaza project just outside downtown. Owned by shareholders and managed locally, this project is really the only property with enough scale to attract REIT investors here in Boise.
- The Gardner Company is making the most headlines lately. With success at 8th and Main, City Center Plaza and Portico in Meridian, the organizations is on a roll. They currently have plans for Parcel B downtown and apparently have a project in planning stages at Ten Mile and I-84.
- The Sundance Company recently added to its portfolio by acquiring the WH Moore Company’s office product. This puts Sundance pretty much in control of the office market in South Meridian (south of Overland Road) and the rising rents there reflect this. Sundance also owns some smaller Class B and C projects around the valley which allow them to farm small users until they can move up to the more Class A product.
- Rafenelli Nahas is a large owner of property in downtown, Park Center and in Meridian. Rafenelli Nahas largely owns high quality Class A office space and is proud of its tenant retention history.
- The Oppenheimer Company is a long time Boise institution, owning two of our Class A office towers downtown. In addition, they own a few small office projects around town.
- Eagle River LLC controls much of the Class A office space in Eagle, our high end suburban submarket. A variety of Class A options in a beautiful park like setting give them an advantage over the many smaller landlords in Eagle. And this allows them to push rents also.
- The Van Aucker Company is Boise’s largest industrial owner/developer and controls a majority of the industrial product and industrial owned land. Most industrial build-to-suits end up in front of the Van Aucker Company.
The above owners have large offices here and they self-manage, lease and run the day-to-day operations. They stay in close contact with their tenants and provide a great service by being intimately involved and in touch with their properties. This comes with a price as these owners usually enjoy the highest rents in town. That said, most of our larger owners are long term holders of their real estate; they don’t build and flip as may be the case with smaller owners. This would indicate that a big motivation for these owners is to find good solid, long term tenants. And while the rental rate is important, it is not the only factor they take into account when considering a deal.
With a few exceptions, that is the bulk of our large office and industrial owners. Most others are small investor owners, usually self managing or hiring a local PM company to handle the day-to-day operations. Smaller owners range between professional, out of state landlords that own an Idaho property or two and small Mom/Pop owned buildings.
The motivations for these landlords varies; some just want to fill a vacancy to cover costs and others are looking to sell and, therefore, can wait for a good rate and solid credit tenant.
So, when looking for a home for your business, a savvy tenant will take a close look at the ownership and management of a property before signing a long term lease. It is a good idea to match your expectations with the capabilities and motivations of your landlord. After all, a solid long time relationship between both parties is a good thing.