Difficult Vacancies



If your space has been sitting empty, you already know what doesn't work.

Maybe it's been listed for months. Maybe you've had an agent — or two — and the phone isn't ringing. Maybe you're watching carrying costs stack up on a space that should be generating income.

You don't need another agent who'll stick a sign out front and wait.

You need someone who can figure out why it isn't leasing — and fix that.

That's what we do.

What We Do Differently

Most agents market a vacant space. We diagnose it.

There's usually a reason a space isn't leasing — and it's rarely just bad luck or a slow market. It might be the way it's being positioned. The wrong tenant profile being targeted. A physical characteristic that's being worked around instead of solved. A price that makes sense on paper but kills deals in practice.

We start by figuring out what the actual problem is.

That might mean reimagining the use entirely. It might mean identifying a tenant category nobody else considered. It might mean having a hard conversation with you about what needs to change before the right tenant will say yes.

What it doesn't mean is listing it, waiting, and hoping.

Here's what that looks like in practice.

• A downtown retail office building with 30% vacancy was listed with several major national firms with limited success, after 12 months and 6 deals, we are sitting at 5% vacancy with our last unit under contract.
• A 4,800 sq ft basement on Jasper Avenue sat vacant for over six years before we took it over. We had it leased within twelve months.
• A second basement space on Jasper was reimagined as a shared underground retail block and fully leased out — a complete repositioning of what the space was and who it was for.
• A 1,900 sq ft retail space was listed with a national firm for a full year. Zero showings. We took it over and had it leased in two months.
• A 15,000 sq ft plaza on Stony Plain Road was sitting near 50% vacant during a pandemic, with active LRT construction out front. We identified the best use for each unit and leased the entire plaza — at above-market rates.
• A 23,000 sq ft industrial building was listed by multiple national brokerages for four years without a sale. We sold it within six months of taking over the listing, and had the space fully leased within a year with the new owner
• A South Edmonton office building was in receivership after five years of vacancy and failed attempts by every major firm in the city. We diagnosed the real problem — an oversized lobby creating a 33%+ gross-up factor that made leasing nearly impossible — and converted the building to medical condo units. It sold within six months.

These aren't one-offs. This is what we do.

This is for you if:

• Your space has been on the market for more than six months with little to show for it
• You've had an agent — and it didn't work
• Your property has something working against it: a basement location, no windows, an unusual layout, a difficult buildout, or a location that's been affected by construction or transit changes
• You're tired of paying carrying costs on a space that should be generating income

This is not for every property — and we'll tell you honestly if yours isn't a fit.

We work in Edmonton's city proper. We take on difficult listings because we've built the process, the tenant network, and the repositioning experience to move them. If your space qualifies, we want to talk.

One more thing worth knowing.

Most brokerages require a 12-month listing agreement. Ours is 6 months.

We don't need to lock you in for a year to feel confident. If we take on your listing, it's because we believe we can move it — and we'd rather earn your trust than contractually require it.

Tell us about your vacancy.

We'll give you a straight answer on what we think the problem is and what it would take to fix it. No obligation, no sales pitch — just an honest look at your property.

Reach me at tom@lizotterealestate.com or via the form below.