What is the playbook for preventing industrial vacancy?
The playbook for preventing industrial vacancy has four steps: rank every tenancy by the income at stake and how hard the unit would be to re-let, gather evidence on the exposed ones (lease terms, payments, credit alerts, news and tenant conversations), work the renewal early, and start a replacement search before the notice date on any tenant likely to leave. Not all vacancy can be prevented, but most of its cost can be shortened. Scayled runs the replacement step: for each exposed unit it finds 250 to 350 businesses the building suits and the person who signs at each.
- Can industrial vacancy actually be prevented?
- Step one: how do you rank tenancies by vacancy exposure?
- Step two: what evidence should you gather on each exposed tenancy?
- Step three: how do you work the renewal?
- Step four: how do you prepare the replacement before the unit empties?
- What does it cost to run the playbook with Scayled?
Can industrial vacancy actually be prevented?
Some of it. A tenant whose operation still fits the building can often be kept with an early, fair renewal or an expansion within the portfolio. A tenant that has outgrown the unit, consolidated after an acquisition or failed cannot be kept, however good the relationship.
So the playbook has two aims: keep the tenants that can be kept, and make sure the units that do come back are re-let quickly. The second aim is where most of the money is, because downtime drives the cost of a void.
Step one: how do you rank tenancies by vacancy exposure?
For each tenancy, combine the income at stake, the time to the next expiry or break, the likelihood the tenant leaves, and how hard the unit would be to re-let. Large single-let and specialised units score higher on the last measure, because fewer businesses can take them.
Use the lease system or ARGUS for income and dates. Rank the whole portfolio and focus the team's time on the top of the list.
Step two: what evidence should you gather on each exposed tenancy?
Lease terms and rent against market, payment history from Yardi or MRI, credit alerts from Creditsafe, Dun & Bradstreet or Experian, news about the tenant's business, and what the tenant said in the most recent conversation about volumes, headcount and whether the unit still fits.
Write a short judgement for each (stay, uncertain, likely to leave) with the evidence behind it, and review it on a set rhythm, such as each valuation cycle.
Step three: how do you work the renewal?
Start early enough that a full replacement search could still finish before the lease ends. Offer what fits the tenant's direction: a regear for a stable tenant, more space for a growing one, a rightsize for a shrinking one. Price the offer against the realistic cost of a re-let, not against the rent alone.
Keep the conversation with the person who runs the operation, and record what is agreed and when.
Step four: how do you prepare the replacement before the unit empties?
For any tenant likely to leave, or still uncertain close to its notice date, start a quiet replacement search. Scayled builds it from a short brief: the businesses the unit would suit, 250 to 350 of them from the immediate area outwards, each with the owner, director or property lead named, a checked contact and a drafted email.
It is ready in the owner's Scayled account in about five working days. Nothing is advertised, the sitting tenant is excluded, and it runs alongside the appointed agent. If the tenant does go, conversations are already under way.
What does it cost to run the playbook with Scayled?
Step four costs one campaign per exposed unit: US$749 for the Full version, paid once, with no commission on the letting and no subscription, or from US$449 for a Focused one.
Every campaign stays in the fund's Scayled account, so the businesses found for one asset are there for the next in that market. A sample campaign shows what step four produces.
Lease The Vacancy In-House, Before You Appoint An Agent.
The Campaign finds the 250 to 350 businesses the building suits, names the person who decides at each and writes every email, ready in about five days. One payment of US$749 per property, no commission and no subscription. A focused 100 to 150 from US$449.