As a family business that began in 1979, we started from humble beginnings and only got into the real estate part of the fast food industry in the late 1990s. Since then, we were exclusively buyers – we had never sold a single property. In our mind, we did not ever want to sell as the real estate was our “retirement”.
Well, times change and circumstances dictated that we needed to do some maneuvering with our real estate. We tried listing a property with a run-of-the-mill real estate broker and got exactly nowhere. Then, we met Sands Investment Group (SIG) and things changed dramatically for the better.
Working with the Sands Team (Max Freedman and Elan Sieder specifically), we were able to craft a strategy that included the selling of some real estate, the sale-leaseback of a few properties, and 1031 Exchange on a few others, which collectively helped us achieve the following:
significantly lower occupancy costs;
meaningful decrease of our real estate debt; and
material increase in the cash flow of our overall real estate portfolio.
SIG takes a very practical, client friendly approach to each prospective transaction. Moreover, they do the “hard yards” in prepping a site for sale – they send a professional photographer to the property, design professional Offering Memoranda, they collate all the due diligence, and they are very reachable to answer all your questions throughout the process. And most importantly, they aggressively market your property and bring you legitimate offers in short order.
In addition to all these positives, SIG also has an unparalleled suite of contacts throughout the restaurant industry to whom they can refer you for all your development needs. They know all sorts of Build-to-Suit (BTS) firms and also have other industry contacts that can help bolster other areas of your organization.
In short, SIG was, is, and will be a joy to work with. I will use them exclusively for all my commercial real estate needs going forward. If you are considering any type of transaction, I recommend them to you without any hesitation.