Cole Engineering: A Lennard Case Study

Cole Engineering is a rapidly growing professional consulting engineering company who Lennard began working with in the fall of 2009 with a mandate to identify a solution to their office accommodations.  At the onset of our assignment, the company was spread across three locations with a total office space of 24,000 sq.ft.

Cole Engineering was growing exponentially, and therefore flexibility was an essential requirement in analyzing their renewal or relocation options. Together, we estimated their growth as moving from 60 employees to 300 over the next 5 years. The key was to find space which could accommodate the current requirement and provide enough expansion space for the 5 year term.

We were successful in assisting Cole Engineering in consolidating their three office locations into one central location at 70 Valleywood Drive in Markham, Ontario. Through an analysis of their current situation, future expansion needs and an overall cost analysis, we were able to find a location that fitted all of their requirements. Cole now leases the entire building at 70 Valleywood comprising of 52,950 sq.ft. of office space.

Lennard also successfully negotiated an substantial improvement allowance to allow retrofitting of the building, as well as free rent  allowing for Cole to relocate and fixture their new premises without having to duplicate their current office rental costs.

Due to their single tenancy, Cole has have all signage rights for the building, which translates into a superior branding opportunity in a central and high traffic location.

Significantly, Cole was able to reduce their office leasing costs by approximately 40% and at the same time was able to expand their office space for current and future expansion needs.  

Overall, Cole Engineering were extremely satisfied with the outcome and are able to maintain control of their office leasing costs, while meeting their growth needs for the next several years, maximizing profitability for the company.

Eric MacDonald the President of Cole Engineering Group noted “the retaining of Lennard as our leasing vendor proved a, major success based on the unique opportunities identified relating to a premise location, gross rent payable which was of least 40% below the market value in the expeditor  market in which the deal was completed between the Owner and CEO.  It would be without hesitation that we would again use the services of Lennard and also recommend them to others.”