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CONTENT Ottawa’s Commercial Real Estate Market in 2017: What should we expect in the year ahead? P.6 Cap Rates and Commercial Real Estate Investment Analysis P.16 Can you afford not to hire a project manager? P.24 Is anyone doing the omni-channel? P.32 Building Muscle and Brainpower: The results of an active lifestyle in the modern age P.40
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LETTER FROM THE EDITORS As the snow melts and as green shoots emerge, we feel a renewed sense of direction—of new beginnings. Here at Koble, we have built our lives around new beginnings, whether it is our clients parting ways with their commercial properties to invest in something new, or those who have just invested in something new to build a brighter future. It is with this theme that we present this quarter’s issue of InvestCRE Magazine. However, in this issue, we not only discuss the business side of new beginnings, but we also focus on the educational aspect. As well, to add to this issue, we look at the more personal, human element as it relates to health and longevity. Far too often, we concentrate on the right here, right now, of business—momentum that can blind us to our own wellbeing. In fact, we know we are guilty of this. A fast-paced life leading to fast-paced food, leading to little time to take care of the engine that continually drives us forward. Therefore, we encourage everyone to sit back, take a moment, and relax. Perhaps even recalibrate and embrace the fact that personal health and wellbeing will lead to better business decisions, better investments, and, ultimately, more success—for you and for those closest to you. So, with new beginnings and spring in the air, we hope you enjoy this latest issue.
Marc Morin Co-editor
Graeme Webster Co-editor
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OTTAWA’S COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE MARKET IN 2017: WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT IN THE YEAR AHEAD? By Alan Whitten - Huntington Property Group WILL OTTAWA’S ECONOMY BOOM OR BUST, OR OFFER MORE OF THE SAME BORING, STEADY GROWTH IN THE COMING MONTHS?
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Now that 2017 has dawned, the year ahead is expected to be somewhat exceptional in Ottawa, if only because it’s Canada’s 150th birthday, which offers much promise for the tourism and entertainment sector. For the commercial real estate market (CRE)—which is defined as office, retail, industrial and mid-to-large multi-family dwellings and apartments—it will likely be just more of the same, which is a good thing. Due to the presence of the federal government, Ottawa has rarely set records for price changes, up or down, and that won’t change this year. This region will, however, continue to be a slow and steady opportunity for those looking to invest in CRE—or probably any other kind of real estate, for that matter. One of the main drivers of this forecast is the basic macroeconomic principle of supply and demand. The supply of good-quality CRE assets is limited here, especially when considering the area bounded by the National Capital Commission’s Greenbelt. There are a finite number of properties that can be bought or sold— or even become available— inside that boundary, and a very high majority of them are owned by those who intend to keep them indefinitely, resulting in very little supply. Influencing the demand side of that principle is the presence of the federal government, which provides a continuous trickle-down effect that ensures a basic level of demand for goods and services in the National Capital Region. This point can be debated (no city will ever empty out of residents willing to do business with one another); however, the recent example of Calgary’s downturn illustrates how a local economy can slow due to external events and other potential risks. Nevertheless, provided its main economic driver remains in place, Ottawa should always be stable, which makes for a healthy (if somewhat boring) environment for CRE. While supply may be particularly limited inside the Greenbelt, most of the factors influencing supply and demand apply to the entire city of Ottawa. Its urban area is well defined, and unrestrained growth is very unlikely anywhere, as Ottawa already has one of the largest geographic boundaries of any city in Canada.
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Other factors driving demand include the increasingly diversified economy, specifically Ottawa’s excellent tourism activity and its dynamic tech sector. That sector, particularly in Kanata North, has been undergoing a rebirth of sorts in recent years, and it’s no secret as to why. From the beginning, Ottawa’s tech sector has been based on telecommunications and software, and does anyone believe that smartphones and the Internet will be obsolete any time soon? Look around at any exciting new technology product or service, and it’s safe to say that telecommunications and software are key components. Ottawa’s long history of expertise in these areas provides an advantage. Although the demise of Nortel Networks was indeed unfortunate, there is a silver lining: the collapse of Nortel attracted a host of international companies to fill the gap, such as Ericsson, Nokia and Ciena, each of which has a large presence in Kanata North. BlackBerry, another example of a prosperous Canadian company whose fortunes appeared to be headed south, pivoted into a success story in Ottawa by way of its acquisition of software company QNX, a market leader in the development of autonomous vehicles. Now, Ottawa is poised to become a major research and development centre in that field. Even if you doubt you will ever travel a long distance in a self-driving car, that’s where the future is headed, and Ottawa will be at the forefront in the design and testing of this new technology. (Ironically, Apple, the multibillion-dollar company that has achieved supremacy over all other smartphone companies, including BlackBerry, has also set up shop in Kanata.) Today, Ottawa has the highest proportion of technology employment in Canada, higher than any major city—including tech hub Kitchener–Waterloo—and that translates into higher demand for commercial real estate.
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Of course, tourism is not to be ignored. Sure, Canada’s 150th birthday doesn’t come along every year, but Ottawa is well situated to continue attracting people and events every year. To start with, Canadians will always be drawn to their capital to bask in Canadian culture and experience our country’s history. In addition to the natural advantage of being centrally located between Toronto and Montreal, Canada’s two largest cities, Ottawa is within a day’s drive of the huge population base on the eastern seaboard of the US. Those facts, combined with the presence of dozens of international embassies and consulates that draw visitors from around the globe, make the National Capital Region a significant catch basin for tourism. Ottawa is not only rich in tourism assets such as Parliament Hill and other historical buildings, it also boasts an amazing array of world-class museums, music and arts festivals and sporting events, as well as proximity to outdoor phenomena such as Gatineau Park, the Ottawa River and the world’s largest skating rink! If those responsible for Ottawa’s many attractions promote these assets widely, both nationally and internationally, our tourism sector will continue to flourish beyond 2017. You may be able to guess my point: Tourism creates employment and opportunity, and translates into higher demand for commercial real estate. So, the fundamentals of Ottawa CRE clearly favour strong demand for goods and services—meaning more buyers not only for accommodation, but also for everything from coffee and clothing to entertainment, which means that more businesses will be created to cater to this demand. But Ottawa CRE is an asset class that demands capital. Despite those ridiculous advertising claims we’ve all seen (Buy real estate with no down payment!), CRE is a capital-intensive business, and buyers need both debt (in most cases) and equity (in all cases). Fortunately, Canadian banks and other lenders are unlikely to turn off the taps when it comes to financing what is perceived as among the lowest-risk assets in Canada—that’s a given. And once you’ve acquired your asset, the future horizon appears promising for liquidity. Brookfield, a global company that currently manages more than $250 billion in real estate assets, published a report in 2013 predicting that institutional investors will increase their investments in real assets (such as CRE). The report noted that this trend is expected to “accelerate materially over the course of the next decade, with allocations to real assets reaching 20% to 30% of portfolios by 2030.”
And what about demand for Ottawa CRE assets? In 2016, Altus, a national commercial real estate consulting company, conducted a survey of Canadian real estate executives that found there were an estimated 17 buyers for every seller of good-quality industrial assets. Yes, there is demand for Ottawa CRE! CRE is an asset that creates a rate of return, which is kind of important, as no one who invests money in anything wants it to sit idle. Some may view the Ottawa market with skepticism due to the lowered rates of capitalization and rising price tags associated with CRE assets in recent years. However, interest rates have dropped in tandem with capitalization rates, mitigating these market changes. Your rate of return is most important when compared with inflation, and the rates of return for Ottawa CRE assets are still performing well compared with most inflation rates in the industrialized world. Whether you are a sophisticated money manager or a family with money to invest, you don’t want to stick your money in a mattress and watch it erode in value due to inflation. In Canada, the inflation rate has stayed at or below 2% for the majority of the past decade, and many experts predict it will remain at a manageable level. Well-located and properly managed CRE investments will allow you to beat inflation on your assets. While rate of return is important, capital growth is also a critical aspect of investing in CRE. The investment objective should extend beyond simply beating inflation, as you should expect your assets to grow in value as well. In many CRE sectors, it’s still cheaper to rent or buy something that already exists, given the current cost of buying land and building new. In 2017, this “discount” on buying existing assets should be in the range of 20% to 40%, depending on the asset. There are reasons why new assets cost more, and the biggest one is that users who need a distinct feature will pay more for something they can’t find elsewhere. But most users, whether they are a corporation or a shop owner, will likely opt to take the cheaper route, rather than breaking the bank to buy the “shiny new toy.”
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As an owner of CRE, buying a property that is already there, with a value you can measure, protects you from the risk that someone down the street will build something new and steal your tenants. This discount is also a way of shielding yourself to some extent from future development, because the cost base of existing assets is lower than it is for newly completed properties. Plus, there is good reason to expect this “discounted” initial purchase price will translate into capital growth sometime in the future. These are some of the “macro” reasons why Ottawa is a good place to invest, but one still needs to be smart about what to buy. Do your research, negotiate hard, and be prepared when a good opportunity presents itself. Huntington Properties was established in 1996 because we believed there are good CRE investment opportunities in Ottawa. Our subsequent growth has confirmed that it was true then, and it is still true in 2017. Alan Whitten is the founding partner of Huntington Property Group Inc.
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CAP RATES & COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT ANALYSIS By Allan Jensen - Newgate Realty Advisors Inc
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Simply put, cap rates are the ratio of rent paid by your tenants to the price and value of the building. Even though simple, it is one of the key metrics in commercial real estate analysis. As well as being a key metric, inversely related to value, cap rates are an important barometer on the current state of the market: as the price and value go up, the cap rate decreases. And then, of course, when prices fall, the inverse is true: high demand and well located properties consistently sought after by potential investors tend to command a lower cap rate. Take a well located multi-family residential property. Investors have historically considered them a safe and stabilizing asset—the rationale being that everyone needs a roof over their head. An owner of an apartment building, if confronted with a particularly weak local market, perhaps as a result of a relocation of a major employer in the city, could lower rental rates on individual units should they become vacant, so as to maintain or stabilize occupancy and cash flow. Gross income in these situations is relatively predictable. Similarly, you will typically see low cap rates with commercial properties leased on a long-term basis to strong tenants. Perhaps a nationally recognized retailer, a major financial institution, or a governmental agency or department. In such situations, investor risk is low, and you would expect a sales price reflective of a low cap rate. Conversely, a property that is not as well located, that is not as well leased, or that is classified as a specialty use property, would command a higher cap rate. The perception is they involve higher owner/investor risk. Okay, so far so good.
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WHAT ABOUT RISK?
What does the recent, and seemingly ongoing cap rate compression, tell us about risk? Those schooled in appraisal and valuation methodology have long been taught that increases in property income are a major driver of value and, consequently, of lower cap rates. Furthermore, cap rates reflect the risk-free return plus a risk premium, less the growth in long-term rental income. So if rental income is stagnant, as it is in many locations, then would lower cap rates not infer that investors are repricing their attitude towards risk? Or are we mispricing risk in the market?
CAN WE EXPECT LONGER TERM RENTAL GROWTH? The components that enter into an assessment of the relative risk of a real estate investment of course include financing costs. These costs are directly related to bond yields, as Government Bonds often are held to be the “risk-free” investment alternative for institutional lenders. Bond yields are at historically low levels, so if cap rates are continuing to fall, perhaps investors are becoming immune to risk—or perhaps they are betting on longer term rental income growth. There appears to be a continued bifurcation in the market. It does seem as though offshore investors have a different take on “risk-free” investing. They are often larger players, likely have greater access to less expensive funding and, more importantly, have a longer term investment horizon. The market does not, however, differentiate between local and offshore buyers. Cap rates reflect buyer sentiment. In this increasingly global marketplace, domestic investors are of necessity on the same playing field with larger offshore investors. The result seemingly is a continued cap rate compression. By some accounts, this reflects an absence of a risk premium or, at the very least, a difference of opinion as to what constitutes risk.
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By Jeff Moffatt - SpaceWerx Corporation When the time comes to expand, relocate, or renovate your office space you are faced with many tasks and decisions. While it’s an exciting opportunity to refresh your brand and create an inspiring workspace for your company, the magnitude of what’s involved can be daunting. The challenge for most organizations is how to navigate the somewhat complex planning, design and execution of a construction project, while continuing to deliver on the day-to-day requirements of running the business. The answer for many people is to engage the services and expertise of a project manager.
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The innate nature of any real estate or construction project is that, regardless of size, they are time consuming, risky and, in some cases, costly. The larger the project, the broader the scope, the more opportunity for challenges to arise with cost overruns, schedule delays, and other unforeseen issues. Having a project leader in place will help not only to mitigate many of these potential problem areas, but also to provide benefits in other areas as well, including the luxury of having a single source of accountability and responsibility. And maybe, more importantly, it will take the burden off you and your team so you can focus your time and energy on areas that are more comfortable for you. One of the most often asked questions we get is, “When should we bring a project manager into our plans?� The answer is always the same: as early as possible. Creating a work plan and leveraging the vision, experience and talents of an experienced project manager at every stage of the project is a benefit. And when you have that expertise on board as early as possible, it will help identify and avoid costly mistakes later in the schedule. And I do mean early. Once architectural and mechanical drawings are done, you have lost some of your leverage to select the ideal team and to create value through your team’s experience and contacts. We often work with brokers who are key members of the location and site evaluation team. They participate actively when locations are considered, such as for new office space or for retail space. At this stage, a good project manager can provide independent counsel on many items, including developing space plans to ensure you have room now and in the future for your staff; evaluating base building mechanical and electrical systems; and developing key budget and financial evaluations of sites under consideration. All this early stage planning helps you make better informed decisions by identifying potential problems or opportunities for cost savings.
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When considering the pros and cons of independent project management, keep in mind that a good project manager should: •
Deliver Measurable Results – This means a skilled professional has the experience and capability to lead the project from beginning to end and to do so on time and on budget.
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Provide a Customized Approach – Your project manager can tailor the approach and requirements to accurately meet the specific needs of your project. There truly is no one size fits all and a good project manager is resourceful and adaptive to your unique requirements.
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Save Time – Managing a project means choreographing team members and a diverse set of tasks. The more complex the project, the more demand there is to manage vendors, partners, stakeholders, trades and the entire project team. To do it efficiently while maintaining consistency of quality and control takes an unwavering focus. A good project manager can navigate and direct the project team, so you can focus on your core business.
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Assemble the Players – Like any team, the success of any project is contingent on having the right players who can provide their experience and expertise, and who have the ability to work as a unified group. A good project manager has the vision to not only hand pick the right players, but also to lead the team so that everyone can contribute their talents effectively and can work together to meet the objectives.
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Mitigate Risk – A good project manager will be able to mitigate risk throughout the project, and will have a contingency plan should a situation arise that requires decisions to be made and dealt with in a timely manner.
And, of course, there is the financial side of all this. By managing a project in an organized and professional way, the expectation is that you will minimize cost and schedule overruns. Clearly, this is an area where good governance and project management provide significant benefits. There is also the added dimension of the project manager bringing industry relationships and experience in every discipline to the team, including construction, furniture, IT, security, cabling, signage and moving. The project manager can draw on comparable and vendor experience to provide valuable insight and perspective on every part of this multi-dimensional process. All things considered, the question might in fact be, “How can we afford not to hire a project manager?”
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? IS ANYONE DOING THE
OMNI-CHANNEL? By Allan Zander - omNovos
I have had an interesting year talking to many retailers about omni-channel. Everyone is talking about it, everyone says they are doing it, but no one is and, in fact, some are scared to death to try it.
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So, let us look at some of the challenges facing omni-channel. Omni-channel went mainstream in 2014, and became widely accepted as the way in which all commerce should be conducted in the future. Around 2016, omni-channel appeared to become less about the logistical backend, and more about how we engage with a customer. Take a brand that has multiple customers who have different ways of using technology, and that has multiple employees who need to be kept up to date on their customers: How does the brand manage all the permutations associated with a customer demanding to be shown that you know me, while demanding that you do know me? Surely, if retailers can understand a bit more about what a customer personally wants and then presents the right product, they stand a much greater chance of a conversion. Thus, the technology becomes: How does the retailer manage a relationship with the customer while, at the same time, ensuring they have the inventory to meet the customer’s needs—and with employees educated sufficiently to know how to engage effectively with the customer? Most retailers understand the importance of having an omni-channel strategy to stay competitive in today’s demanding retail environment; even so, many are still struggling to manage their operations efficiently and effectively. The primary challenge facing retailers is how to ensure a seamless customer experience across channels, making a profit on every sale while engaging with their customers. So how can retailers take advantage of the opportunities that are inherent in omni-channel?
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Outlined below are six challenges affecting retailers with some omni-channel perspective on how to navigate through this new retail landscape:
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Ensure Data Quality and Relevancy Today, an omni-channel retailing strategy is essential as retailers need open lines of communication across multiple channels—in-store, online, mobile device, or social media—that lead to a seamless, continuous experience across brands and devices, and that engage a customer one-on-one. To seamlessly engage the customer, myriad databases and systems such as eCommerce platforms, POS (Point of Sale) systems, marketing automation, and customer relationship management tools must be connected to make omni-channel sales and marketing initiatives a reality. The omni-channel journey starts with capturing customer information. While capturing all this customer information is critical, it is also equally important to ensure that the quality of the information captured is accurate and up to date; therefore, retailers need to measure data quality and set data standards, clean and analyze the data for relevancy, turn the data into action, and, finally, action that data through a customer engagement solution.
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Create an Ideal Customer Profile An ideal customer profile should be based on interviews and research from current and past customers, potential new customers, and employees. The end result is a fictional character who embodies the retailer’s ideal customer. Ideal customer profiles should guide all marketing efforts, new business outreach, and current customer growth. Retailers can use this information to develop offers that align with different customer types, to create enablement tools for sales representatives outlining common objections and responses, and to segment current customers and prospects for more targeted communication and marketing.
Deliver Consistent Experiences Delivering a consistent experience for customers across all channels continues to challenge retailers. Two of the biggest challenges are ensuring the consistency of inventory levels and product pricing. To satisfy their customers, retailers need to deliver a consistent and positive experience. If recommending products, retailers must find a way to make that recommendation consistent. Consider that many people want to use their mobile phone while shopping in-store, so setting up a captive portal to an in-store Wi-Fi will help to engage those customers. It can deliver what is probably at the top of every retailer’s wish list: identifying who is in the store. Discrepancies will ultimately lead to poor customer experiences, so retailers need to place strong emphasis on ensuring they are delivering the same experience every time, regardless of the channel the customer may be using.
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Empower and evolve employees’ role Retailers need to empower employees to deliver outstanding customer service. And the best way to make that happen is to give their employees the right data. With the right data, employees can take on many new responsibilities; therefore, the retailer will need to evolve them from a clerk to a concierge who can deliver a highly personalized service. Providing employees with the tools that give them a single view of customer transactions is a good way to start, but often they will run into the elusive data issue. Data that allows sales staff to track orders, look up product availability, address enquiries, and understand customers’ purchasing history and preferences, not only can improve customer interactions and ensure positive experiences, but also has the potential to open new sales opportunities as it is the path towards a highly personalized experience for the customer. However, frequently the data is not there because of the white space between a CRM and PoS information. Moving to omni-channel is not going to make this information suddenly available, it will take time, but at least it is a place to start. If concerned about integrating, there is no need. If the data has no transactional history associated with it that ties back to the individual, and no way to connect to employees and the loyalty database—it just looks like first and last name and an email address—then a retailer is in the best position to start looking at omni-channel and how to use it because it is basically a blank slate. If the data is the issue, then retailers do not have to solve it, but instead they can work around it. They can send emails to the people in their loyalty system, thank them for being their customer, and pick five SKUs, whether they are overstock or simply “good sellers,” that will drive the customer to the store. Retailers can tell their employees that if the customer comes in for SKU-A, to ask them if they bought SKU-B and, if they did not, tell the employee to offer an incentive if they buy it today. The retailer can have the employee make a note of it, which gives the retailer some data on what will bring that customer in, and what they might react to in the store. Retailers could easily create a rule that whenever someone buys SKU-A online, they offer an incentive to pick it up in-store. Employees can be educated on the rules so when the customer comes in for SKU-A, an employee will know SKU-B is an incentive. If the customer reacts, then again retailers have an opportunity to understand the behavior. If this approach is successful, retailers can track and start to build a knowledge base. A company like omNovos can keep track, so as the customer engagement platform builds data on what is bringing people through the door, then retailers will know the right promotion and the right channel— no integration required.
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Make Returns Easier Many consumers shopping online are often hesitant to buy products because of stringent return policies. Knowing this, omni-channel retailers need to make this a much more seamless process and move towards enabling returns in any channel or location. This way, unwanted stock can be easily converted into available-to-purchase inventory, and consumers can easily return goods in a way that is convenient to them. One of the best ways to build up loyalty and trust in the brand is to create reasons for loyal customers to show their loyalty matters. Being easy to do business with is one of the best ways to build that personal relationship. If a customer wants to return an item bought online, then set up a time in-store for that customer to meet with a designated employee. Simply confirm a time via email, text or chat that will show the customer how easy it is to return an item bought online.
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Understand stock availability and leverage network-wide inventory Personalization is key to omni-channel experiences becoming positive, but before getting there retailers need to know where their inventory is and how they can leverage it. Retailers need to see not only stock levels, but also availability: What is already on order? What is in transit or returned? They also need to use every supply source to meet customer demand. This includes stores, which are increasingly becoming mini-distribution centers for fulfilling online orders, as well as a place where customers still go to shop. Only once they are doing this can retailers hope to have complete operational control across their enterprise. This is critical: it will become difficult to have a consistent customer experience and build up a personal relationship with a customer when inventory is never in the right place at the right time to complete a sale.
Omni-channel does not have to be a scary beast. I do not recommend that you try to do all six at once. Your situation may make just one of these points an easier starting point than another—so start there. Do not get wrapped up in integrating and do not get wrapped up in overthinking the personalization approach. Omni-channel is a new and exciting technology. Take baby steps that allow for the relationship with your customer to evolve and grow over time. This way, if you need to take a tiny step backwards, it is easier and poses less threat to your brand. We all want to have loyal customers, but we tend to overthink the implementation of omnichannel. Start small and start simple and your odds of success will be as high as your omni-channel conversion rates.
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Building Muscle Brain Power The results of an active lifestyle in the modern age by Scott Randals 4 1
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It’s no surprise that we, as a society, need to exercise more—but with the proliferation of media, mobile devices, video games, and work, the list goes on, where do we find the time? Especially considering regular exercise and physical activity ensure we live more productive and more fulfilling lives. After all, one needs to look no further than their home or office to find distractions that will prevent living a more physically oriented lifestyle. Whether we are sitting at our desks for over eight hours a day, sitting in the car, sitting in bed watching TV, sitting at the table eating, sitting while checking Facebook, email, spreadsheets, building a presentation…need I go on? The number of daily distractions equals one thing: a distraction from physical activity. Another issue we face are the devices we surround ourselves with, devices that are designed to “make our lives easier.” We do less while our appliances, vehicles, and homes do more. This results in a lack of desire or energy for physical activity. Even shopping is no longer a long walk at the mall—it’s an iPad and Amazon app at 10:30 at night to fulfil an instant gratification need. Even travel has changed: airports have conveyor belts to take us to the appropriate gate, because walking is out of the question, right? So, what does this mean for us as a society? Are we all doomed to meet the future as foretold in award-winning WALL-E—a future of people so out of touch with physicality that we are no longer able to move under our own power? Not to be gloomy, but it is a possibility. And to back up that prediction, according to the American Heart Association, “Sedentary jobs have increased 83% since 1950; physically active jobs now make up less than 20% of the workforce. In 1960, about half of the workforce was physically active. Our average workweek is longer. Full-time workers work about 47 hours working each week—that’s more than 350 extra hours worked each year.” So, what does this mean for those of us who are more apt to climb the corporate ladder than a stepladder? It means we must take our health and future into our own hands. We must rethink our lifestyles to ensure we end up where we want to be and with the people who enrich our lives. In this information age, there is more than enough evidence—we are continuously inundated with fit and lean body images—to show the benefits of regular exercise and physical activity. Studies have found that people who regularly workout are less likely to suffer from diabetes, heart disease, stress related illnesses, and so on. These alone are reasons for all of us to hit the gym, go for a walk at lunch, hike or bike on weekends, enrol in sports, and other physical activities. However, as it pertains to that aforementioned corporate ladder, there are more benefits derived from enjoying good health: physical activity and regular exercise help to make us faster, smarter, and more successful.
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Apparently, aside from ensuring that our clothes fit this spring, regular exercise can have amazing effects on cognitive function and brain growth. How’s that for muscle building? A recent study examining the effects of acute aerobic exercise on working memory, task-evoked brain activity as well as task performance, found that “Moderate acute aerobic exercise increases both working memory and cortical hemodynamic responses in the prefrontal cortex.” So, what exactly does this mean for us folks who do not have an advanced scientific background? Simply put, it means that you can concentrate better, longer, have improved cognitive reflexes, and enhanced overall performance—obviously, highly beneficial in a work environment. In addition, exercise has also been proven to grow new brain cells, known as neurogenesis—the process by which neurons are generated from neural stem cells and progenitor cells. A study published in The Journal of Neuroscience confirmed that running exercise improves new memory formation along with an increase in neurogenesis. As well, a new fitness centre in Ottawa, Premium Performance, with a scientific approach and focus on executive and professional athlete training, found that when an individual adhered to working out three times a week, substantial improvements resulted in just one month. And physical changes resulted after three months. As Premium Performance programs are based on science, there’s no guessing. Because of that, there’s always improvement with no regression. Training times are tailored to the specific requirements of each individual—regardless of lifestyle whether executive or an athlete. So aside from all the physical benefits, exercise can improve everything we do both physically and mentally. In short, regular physical exercise will make you stronger, faster, and more agile in all aspects of your work and life—becoming the person you knew you always could be by simply leaving your seat and having some fun. And whether that means running, hiking or skiing, hitting the gym, or simply chasing your kids with a little more fervor than normal, the more exercise you get, the happier and smarter you’ll be.
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NEW OTTAWA FITNESS CENTER
WHERE RESULTS START 1065 Wellington West St. Suite 102, Ottawa. Biosignature
BioSignature modulation is a cutting-edge, non-invasive fat loss method. This 12 skin-fold body fat assessment and analysis gives us the data we need to track your progress with fat loss, muscle gain, and health status. Hormonal imbalances often cause stubborn fat storage, poor sleep, low energy, impaired cognitive function, and more. With the data we are able to establish your hormonal profile and work to correct any imbalances in order to achieve optimal health.
Personal Training
The best way to achieve your goals! Our fitness professionals will motivate our members by setting objectives, measure strengths and weaknesses, create personal exercises programs for an optimal physical improvement.
Program Design
Another great way to achieve your goals. Your strength coach will design a personalized program that is periodized every month according to your individual progress.
Contact Us For A Free Biosignature info@premiumperformance.ca
www.premiumperformance.ca
toothandnailbeer.com 3 Irving Ave Ottawa ON, K1Y 1Z2 +1.613.695.4677
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2017