Finding Fast Growing Companies a Space to Support Their Future

CarNow is the market leader in tailored digital solutions to help dealers sell more cars. The company was experiencing rapid growth, quickly outgrowing their original office space in Vinings, Georgia. CarNow hired Cresa to help find an office space that aligned with their goals, while helping them recruit and retain top talent. Cresa applies the following steps when working with companies experiencing rapid growth, like CarNow.

1) Strategic Planning: Understanding how the client uses the space drives everything. Cresa went through a discovery process with CarNow, creating a strategy to find a space that supported their company culture, brand image, and growth projections. Cresa sat down with CarNow to understand the company’s objectives, how many employees they had, how they wanted to use their space, what their growth projections were, and what was most important to them in their new space.

Retaining and recruiting top talent was imperative for Carnow’s future. CarNow expressed it was important to be in an exciting and walkable area, not only to enrich the employee experience, but also for employee onboarding from other markets.

2) Bringing Ideas to the Table: After determining the client’s business objectives, Cresa brings ideas, and years of observations of Atlanta market trends, to the table. Where are people gravitating? How are people using space? What areas of the city are “hot,” not just now, but in the future? What balance of closed-off vs. collaborative space does the client want? Once a full strategy is conducted, Cresa goes to market knowing all the details upfront so we can fully focus on finding the best space for the client.

3) Discovery Process: Cresa created a space program based off CarNow’s objectives, supporting the use of the space today and CarNow’s growth projections for the future. Cresa’s strategic planning takes luck out of the equation, coming out of the discovery process knowing exactly what the client is looking for.

CarNow’s objectives and budget drove the strategy and execution of site selection. CarNow chose to stay in the Cumberland submarket, a market that benefits from immediate highway access, proximity to Suntrust Park, and comparatively affordable space. Cresa helped guide CarNow through the overwhelming amount of office options in Cumberland to find the ideal office space.

4) Site Tours and Market Expertise: CarNow wasn’t always interested in the Circle 75 building. However, as market experts, Cresa knew the suite within Circle 75 supported CarNow’s vision. Suite #800 had once been the former Braves office with a build-out that already fit CarNow’s needs. Finding a space that didn’t need total renovation drove a better deal economically, saving the client money and crafting a more attractive negotiation. When negotiating the deal, Cresa’s tenant improvement allowance let us to do more with the money because minimal changes needed to be made to the build-out.

The Circle 75 building is also across from The Battery. It is ideally located near multiple hotels, many entertainment options, and numerous top restaurants for clients and employees to enjoy. After touring this space, CarNow was blown away and knew the space would best support their goals.

5) How can we help you further?: After analyzing CarNow’s needs, Cresa knew their client would benefit from Cresa’s C3 services in addition to transaction management. Cresa C3 helped CarNow select a primary and secondary internet connection, and cloud phone system.

As service line experts, Cresa thinks through the real estate process to determine which other Cresa services would be applicable in the transaction to best help clients. Other fast-growing companies could benefit from services like Labor Studies and Location Strategy & Economic Incentives to determine where the company’s talent pool is and how it would drive location decisions.