Challenge
Tarkett, a global manufacturer and distributor of flooring material, was operating out of a facility just outside of Chagrin Falls, Ohio. The company was developing rapidly due to acquisitions and was quickly growing out of its space. To accommodate all of its employees, Tarkett started renting office space throughout the city. This spread employees out, was negatively impacting company culture and was also making it difficult to recruit new employees.
Tarkett needed a new facility that could act as both office space and a location for research and development operations. The company knew it wanted to stay in the same general location but needed to be in a place that was easier to recruit out of and from, boosted employee morale and condensed administrative functions into a single operation. Finally, they wanted to lease a building where they could be a single tenant and ‘brand’ the space as their own.
The desire to be in a single tenant building that could accommodate R&D and office functions limited options and created challenges from a zoning perspective.
Solution
Tarkett’s management team decided to engage with Allegro because they heard about Allegro’s expertise and prior successes from peers. Allegro performed a series of strategic exercises to determine which types of space would fit all of the criteria needed to accomplish Tarkett’s unique set of goals and objectives. Allegro also performed brokerage services for Tarkett including finding the space, negotiating contracts, structuring the deal and advising on the terms of the lease agreement.
What started as a lease ended up turning into a purchase. At that point, Allegro negotiated the purchase agreement and worked with a third party to set up a team to assist Tarkett in building out the property to meet their exact specifications and needs.
Tarkett purchased a 53,000 square foot space in Solon that sits on seven acres of property providing the expansion opportunities the company was looking for. Tarkett bought this property from a bank who, as part of the agreement, would continue to operate a branch out of the first floor of the building for two years. Allegro helped Tarkett work out the details of the branch lease-back. Allegro negotiated signage and parking with the bank ensuring Tarkett could brand the building immediately. One of the most interesting and crucial parts of the project involved Allegro meeting with the city of Solon to get the property zoning changed. Now, Tarkett can conduct R&D functions out of the building as well as administrative functions, making this a fully integrated headquarters facility.
Ultimately, Allegro and Tarkett strategically worked together to recreate and reestablish Tarkett’s North American headquarters – finding a space they could brand as their own that allowed it to expand their business, keep employees happy and most importantly, continue doing excellent work.
This isn’t just a story of one transaction, it was the start of a long-term relationship between Tarkett and Allegro. Allegro now works on a plethora of projects nationwide for Tarkett.
