When Sohel Imani went looking for a second location for his bike shop in Toronto’s West End, he knew he’d be able to leverage the city’s current commercial rental market.
With dozens of storefronts sitting empty in any given Toronto neighbourhood, Imani says he knew he could throw out lowball offers for rentals spaces because there were any number of other lots for lease that he could go to if an owner flat-out refused.
Last month, the second location of Ya Bikes opened in Toronto’s Roncesvalles neighbourhood, with Imani saying he was pleased to lock in a long term deal at a very favourable rate.
Imani and his co-owner knew that now was the time to jump on a space before prices rebounded.
“We both had that in our head,” said Imani. “That the time might be now from a lessee perspective because there’s so many options on the market.”
Commercial real estate agents and members of BIA’s around Canada say the current climate is a prime opportunity for a business to get a new location at a favourable rate if they’ve managed to stay afloat despite the pandemic.
“Retail has been crushed downtown, all you have to do is walk around,” said Andrew Baker, a broker of record with Lennard Commercial Realty, which operates in Toronto and surrounding cities.
Baker said the current situation is similar to the economic downturn in the early ’90s, where some businesses such as law firms were able to lock in extremely cheap rental contracts that were deeply beneficial to their business in the long term.
He said he’s currently working with the owner of a physiotherapy practice in Mississauga, Ont., that’s looking to double their size while capitalizing on the current vacancy rates.
“She wants to be opportunistic and hard-nosed about it, and she’ll probably get her way,” said Baker.
“It’ll probably set her and her business up for long term profitability for the duration of the lease.”