It’s not your average real estate office. In fact, the owners both used the phrase “Starbuck’s-Chapters idea” in separate conversations.
The rooms are located in a large character space in the Beltline — and some look more like living rooms than board rooms.
The informality of the modern bookstore-cafe blend was the goal, say Patti Beaudry and Helen Lochore at Prudential Solutions for Real Estate.
“We looked at where real estate was going, not where it had been,” says Lochore. The pair were looking for an interactive office environment where customers, or anyone off the street, could come and get real estate information — without the threat of a sales pitch.
 |
| David Lazarowych, Business Edge |
| Patti Beaudry and Helen Lochore like their relaxed office environment in the Beltline area. |
The only Prudential office in Calgary, the team deals in mostly residential real estate services.
The user-friendly approach must work. Last year, it led to two awards from Prudential’s relocation services for top performance, one of them for all of North America.
Real estate sellers usually have home offices, and the office space wanted to reflect this, so individual office space wasn’t really necessary.
Lochore points out that real estate offices typically have a reception area and lots of small offices with realtors going in and out of them.
“We wanted to make it more inviting for all consumers.”
Beaudry says that modern real estate salespeople are engaged in marketing houses for people who want to sell, and acting as consultants for people who want to buy houses.
The philosophy is to take care of customers, and the goal is a long-term business relationship and customer retention, as opposed to short-term business. Prudential’s relocation service does business with companies that regularly transfer employees. The employees don’t have to deal with a Prudential real estate office, but the opportunity is there.
It’s a different kind of real estate because it involves families moving to the unknown.
“You have to take on more for people,” says Lochore. “You have to have more empathy for them.”
Beaudry and Lochore both have real estate experience going back to the 1970s. They set up their own office in 1999, the only female partners in a real estate office in Calgary — and, says Beaudry, “we still like one another.”
Calgary is still small enough that you can work the whole city from a centrally located real estate office.
The company is big in the east and the United States, but Calgary and Edmonton are its only locations in Alberta.
Montreal and Vancouver are the strongest Canadian commercial real estate markets, according to Moody’s Investors Services.
Edmonton had the fourth highest composite score.
The company’s first survey of Canadian markets showed the Canadian scene to be considerably stronger than the U.S. market, except in retail. This confirms the conventional wisdom that Canada lags behind the U.S. in the real estate cycle, the rating agency said.
Moody’s used a traffic-light shorthand to summarize its survey, with green for scores of 67 to 100 for markets in balance, yellow for scores of 34 to 66 for markets near imbalance and red for scores of 33 or less for markets under stress.
Montreal had a score of 98 in multi-family and 76 in offices and Vancouver scored 88 in multi-family and 90 in offices. Their composite scores were 86. Other scores were Winnipeg, 85, Ottawa, 83, Edmonton, 82, Regina, 78, Toronto, 75, Calgary, 74 and Halifax, 71. These nine major markets have about half the population and employment in the nation.
Compared to the U.S. market, Canada scored 96 to 81 in multi-family, 84 to 67 in offices, 82 to 76 in industrial and 67 to 76 in retail.
The overall U.S. score was 78 to Canada’s 83.
Moody’s will revise the report semi-annually.
A real estate investment and management company headquartered in Victoria pulled in a record cash flow on industrial properties, mostly in Alberta.
Western Spirit Investments Ltd. was reporting results for its second quarter, which ended March 31. Funds from operations were $283,773, up 128 per cent from the same period in fiscal 2000. Revenue was $1.86 million, up 42 per cent. The company said its assets were $35.1 million at book value, up 16 per cent.
Western Spirit owns 10 properties with 653,000 sq. ft. of leasable area, all 100-per-cent occupied. By value, 61 per cent is in Alberta, 24 per cent in B.C. and 15 per cent in Ontario.
Western Spirit Investments Ltd. trades on the Canadian Venture Exchange as WST.A.
Web Watch:
www.prudential.com
www.moodys.com
