Fahlgren

People often assume that finding a new office or retail location can be accomplished by anyone using the same basic method. It’s as simple as find a space; fill a space. So, what approach sets one firm apart from another?  Fahlgren Advertising and Fahlgren Mortine Public Relations, the 3rd largest advertising firm in the state of Ohio, recently found out.

When the principals of Fahlgren decided it was time to combine their two divisions to one location, they received recommendations to consider Capitol Equities as their broker for the search.

From the very beginning Steve Drongowski, CEO of Fahlgren, heard the difference. “In the end we interviewed three brokerages in this process and I did my homework, talking with people whom I greatly respect. What I heard was ‘Todd [Kemmerer], J.R. [Kern] and Capitol Equities are as good as it gets’. What I like about Capitol Equities is your position in the market; working as a niche brokerage firm. The reputation out there is that your team works really hard on a limited number of deals, and that you really listen and provide a truly customized solution.”

Brent Holbert, the COO of Fahlgren, agrees that the process largely comes down to finding the right strategic partner. “In the case of Capitol Equities we liked your approach and style. We knew we would be getting a heavy hitter willing to go to bat for us, and to be a tough negotiator. And I think that one of the most important benefits Todd provided for us is that he outlined a timeline for us to follow along with a detailed strategic approach by which to get what we ultimately wanted.”

Capitol Equities approaches every search with the mind-set that our firm and our clients are a single team working toward the same objectives.  For many deals, especially when working with organizations as large as Fahlgren, specific goals may be unclear.  That is why we frequently begin a client search by interviewing several representatives of our client’s organization, across multiple departments and position levels.  

"The fact that your group interviewed people in our team, I believe, was very important," says Holbert. "It gave Capitol Equities a very clear insight as to what in our new office space was most important to our teams, and at the same time it gave many people a lot of input into the process without having to be a part of the final decision making. I think most of the team was very happy with our ultimate decision because their input was considered early in the process.”

To partner with Capitol Equities is to have a guide walking with you every step of the way. By having a detailed understanding of Fahlgren’s culture and needs, Capitol Equities minimized the time required of the executive team to tour properties while instilling confidence that the best options were being considered.

Says Drongowski of the process, “Lots of firms, perhaps, could have taken us to Easton in the end, but you really knew what we needed, and had multiple solutions for us to consider. Fahlgren is not in the real estate business, and to do this type of search once every ten years really had the potential for us to make expensive errors, but Capitol Equities was proactively working to investigate and negotiate on our behalf to head off those costly mistakes.”

Once the top options were chosen, Capitol Equities’ knowledge and creativity became even more important during the negotiation process.  Presenting both non-traditional lease items and heading off potential landlord sticking points due to our depth of experience acting as landlords’ agents resulted in the most attractive lease deal for Fahlgren.

“I can say that working with Capitol Equities was definitely value added service for us,” Holbert remarked. “The team brought a lot to the table in terms of moving beyond traditional negotiations and folding things such as negotiated advertising into the lease document itself. He also had a real understanding of the landlord’s perspective in what I would call the landlord’s ‘ouch points’ and how those should be negotiated. He knew enough about buildings and how they are run to negotiate in such a way as to maximize our tenant improvement dollars. I know our allowance was maximized by many small details and non-quantifiable items.”

Drongowski concurs, “What I heard from Capitol Equities is ‘Here is what we will do, and this is how we will do it. The process and the communication were really good, so that when we did hit a bump we were able to talk about it right away and address it quickly. You always had ideas and options of how we could solve the problems that did come up and more answers than questions. Ultimately, we felt like we had someone living with us through the whole process.”

What differentiates Capitol Equities from our competition? We let our results and clients’ satisfaction speak for themselves. As Brent Holbert stated, “I have worked with a lot of realtors in both commercial and residential deals and there have been so many that just take you out to look at a space and act as no more than an introducer. Todd, J.R. and the Capitol Equities team were partners with Fahlgren. I thought of them as members of our team, not just someone pulling in a commission for whatever we can be sold on.”