Success Stories

Martyn’s Business Relocation Success Stories

Martyn has worked with many businesses that have not just survived a relocation, but have actually come out ahead.

With the right support and assistance, and someone who understands eminent domain laws and the Uniform Relocation Act, you’ll get all the benefits you deserve. Here are a few of Martyn’s success stories:

Better Location and Facilities for Multi-Tenant Property Owners

The problem: The landlord owned a commercial building with five business tenants. The building was old and in disrepair. It had few parking spaces and inconvenient entry and exit access for auto traffic. When eminent domain laws brought a relocation, replacement properties with similar size spaces were twice the amount of the public agency’s relocation offer.

How Martyn helped: Martyn helped the landlord develop a plan with the tenants’ commitment to relocate in the landlord’s replacement property, using their relocation benefits. The public agency deposited funds in the bank so the landlord could make a down payment on the replacement property and make needed improvements. With new leases and the relocation benefits from his tenants, the landlord was able to make additional improvements.

The location is much improved and the landlord and his tenants now have an up-to-date building, excellent exposure to passing traffic, plenty of parking space, and better access for the leasing businesses’ customers.

A Change in Focus Makes a More Profitable Business

The problem: A husband and wife team had purchased a combined teriyaki restaurant-deli. Five years later, they were forced to move to make way for a public project. Their customer base had come from the nearby industrial businesses, which were also being forced to relocate. The move would mean that they would have to start from scratch in a new location. They had no experience in finding an alternate location and had no idea how they would attract new customers.

How Martyn helped: Martyn took the time to not only understand their business, but to listen to what they liked about it. That process proved invaluable because the owners discovered that they enjoyed the teriyaki side of the business more. In fact, when they looked at the numbers, the grocery part of the business was operating at a loss.

Martyn helped this couple work out a formula that allowed them to purchase an existing teriyaki restaurant at another location, using the substitution of equipment method. The result: the perfect restaurant to fit the formula, happier, more fulfilled owners, and a more profitable business.

Family Auto Repair Business Gets New Life

The problem: A husband and wife team was planning to fund their retirement by selling their 40-year-old auto repair business to their son. But an  eminent domain issue was forcing them to  relocate. To make things worse, during their search for a replacement property, they found that new zoning laws didn’t allow a location near their current clients, who resided in the city’s central district.

How Martyn helped: In listening and digging for more information, Martyn discovered that the son did not want to take over the business because the work aggravated a previous injury to his back and legs. With this new knowledge, the owners used some of the funds from the sale of the property to expand their home auto shop, saving the remaining balance to add to their retirement nest egg. They were able to apply their relocation funds to reinstalling their equipment in their newly remodeled home shop. They are now semi-retired, sharing shop hours with their son, who can work as his physical condition allows.

Business Adapts for Changing Family

The problem: The owners of this family business had turned an older, underperforming gas station into an auto repair shop with two indoor repair bays and one outdoor lift under the old service station canopy. They had built a good customer base at their existing location,  so the owners were nervous about the eminent domain-required move.  And, on top of it all, there were no suitable replacement properties in the area.

How Martyn helped: After listening to the owners’ needs and concerns—which included major changes in their personal lives— and thinking about possible solutions, Martyn  developed a plan. Because the couple had their first child on the way, they needed to find a location that would mean a shorter commute and more flexible options for a new mother.

Martyn was able to help them take ownership of a newer gas station with a four-bay garage. The best part was that it was within minutes of their home. By using the substitution of personal property benefit, Martyn also helped them access relocation funds to purchase the equipment they needed and reestablishment money with which to purchase the property.