Starbucks

This was our first Starbucks deal and it was pretty dang difficult. First of all, the property owner had acquired this property via a deed in lieu. He was planning to pull the old gas tanks and once environmentally clean, allow any potential buyer only 60 days of due diligence and then they had to close. For us at that time, we couldn’t close on a site without having a lease in place and getting a lease would take at least 4 months. 

 

However, we knew it was a homerun Starbucks site. We systematically tried to build a rapport with the owner by adding value in other ways. We showed him other purchase opportunities, knowing that if we could create value for him, he’d call us first when he was ready to sell this property. 

 

Once we felt like we were going to get the land put together, we started working with Starbucks on the lease, even though we didn’t control the dirt. Basically, we needed to start the process with Starbucks early and the only way to do that was by negotiating with them prior to having the land under contract. It’s a huge risk and not one we’d likely take again, but fortunately, we were able to get it all to work.