In May 2016, the owner of the Hy-Vee store at 108th and Fort Streets retained Ember Grummons to sell the property.

Hy-Vee had a short remaining term of less than four years on its lease, which would have resulted in a significantly discounted sale price. The seller agreed to delay putting the property on the market while Ember worked with Hy-Vee to extend its lease term. They were able to negotiate a creative deal that would give a new buyer 10 firm years of term after closing, and the seller would only have to provide Hy-Vee the extension incentive if the sale actually closed.

Ember obtained two identical offers of $10,480,000 with a short due diligence period. This increased the seller’s net proceeds approximately $2,000,000 over what the property would likely have sold for with a shorter lease term.

In April 2017, the sellers of Wolf Creek Shopping Center in Bellevue contacted Ember. They had the shopping center under contract for sale, but when Gordman’s declared bankruptcy the buyer terminated the contract.

Gordman’s occupied over 40 percent of the property, and the company’s bankruptcy triggered rights of other tenants to either vacate the property or pay a lower rent.

There were five other buyers interested in the property and the seller wanted to select one quickly. Ember went to his buyer pool and worked with Viking Partners and Integris Ventures through a detailed underwriting process in a very compressed timeframe. They were able to offer the sellers better pricing with an experienced buyer who was highly likely to close the sale. The sale closed on July 27 for $8,100,000, and both parties are pleased with the transaction.

This article appeared in our quarterly newsletter from December of 2017. The full newsletter is available at http://files.investorsomaha.com/download/IR_newsletter_December_2017.pdf