Landlord dangles Porsche

Sell my space. Win a Porsche.

That was the pitch when Greg Hughes, owner of a vacant commercial space at South Meadows, invited area real estate brokers to an open house a few weeks ago.

Did it work?

"Too soon to tell," says Hughes of the nearly 12,000-square-foot vault that once housed Imagine That!, a furniture store at 9325 Double R Blvd.

The whole point of the promotion was to get the attention of brokers, says Hughes of the gala, complete with raffle for prizes such as wine and a flat-screen TV. Brokers were invited to drive the prize Porsche, which will be provided under a one-year free lease once the property is sold.

"They've since said, 'Once we saw the space we remember it,'" he adds.

The property is listed with Brian Armon and Lance Faulstich at Trinity Commercial. The double suite, vacant since Imagine That! went out of business early this year, poses some leasing challenges.

It was built out specifically for use as a furniture store, with a mezzanine, says Armon. The size, nearly 12,000 square feet, once would not have been a challenge.

"There used to be a lot of people looking in that size space range," he says. "But very few large furniture stores are looking for space these days."

In the present economic slump, vacant space is nothing unusual. Leasing agents at Trinity visited larger markets such as Sacramento and Bay Area cities to see what others were doing to find users for large retail vacancies.

"A typical solution was to recast it as open office environment," says Armon. The concept is popular with geothermal and civil engineering companies whose people primarily work out in the field and don't need a private office.

And the Porsche? "The idea came to me at

5 a.m. in the morning, in my sleep," says Hughes.

But Armon again looks to California and recalls that vehicles were dangled before brokers to lease up widespread office space vacancies in Silicon Valley after the dot-com bust of 10 years back. Landlords were giving leasing and sales incentives such as a BMW, Mercedes or a Porsche.

The double suite on Double R with its attendant 20 parking spaces lists for $1.4 million. But Hughes has yet another, smaller space for sale as well. It's not pricey enough to warrant a Porsche prize, he says, but he might do a similar offering with a Mini Cooper.