Before moving back to his hometown of Thunder Bay, Marco Cupelli worked for a boutique property management company in Toronto, where he managed over $200 million dollars in assets and catered to investors who were looking to add capital inside of their properties to add equity to the property, to help garner a better quality of tenant and at a better rent rate.
When he returned home, he noticed that a lot of investors in from around the country were starting to expand outside of the larger cities and investing in areas that were becoming more affordable.
“So, when I came back to Thunder Bay, I thought that it would be a great opportunity to start a full-service property management company because I was hearing a lot of conversations about investors interested in purchasing property in our city,” Cupelli said.
“After some market research, the capital return on these properties was more than interesting and I thought of establishing a business that would be able to provide the support needed for these types of investors.”
This idea led to the establishment Legacy Property Rental Management, which Cupelli is the President of, being formed in 2019.
LPRM offers a full-scale property management service that is hands off and is catered to their clients and their needs.
The company offers services beginning from tenant acquisitions, showings, tenant screening, background checks to lease agreements. They also specialize in the day-to-day maintenances and general repairs to help ensure that the property is well maintained during any tenancy.
“Once the property is tenanted, we help build relationships with the tenants by listening to their needs, maintaining the property by keeping it up to the Legacy standard and communicating any kind of maintenance or repairs to our clients.”
From the firm’s investment perspective LPRM also offers renovation services where they help dissect the current value of the property, present potential budgets, and upgrades, provide potential valuations post renovation and Project Manage a renovation within a timely manner. This process helps LPRM’s clients gain more equity out of their investments while providing more monthly return out of the increased rent.
As the calendar is set to change over to 2024, Cupelli is excited about the growth that’s coming to the region and to Thunder Bay, which LPRM is looking to be a part of as they’ve expanded to a new office on 204 Red River Road and are adding new employees to the company as more growth comes to the city.
“The mining growth and potential of The Ring of Fire has always been a conversation in the region that keeps many investors interested in Thunder Bay. The city is also expecting major infrastructure upgrades to both the Port Arthur & Fort William’s downtowns with millions being spent in necessary upgrades. As well the marina is receiving a $50 million dollar art gallery which is set to help bring thousands of tourists to the city,” Cupelli said.
“Our city is seeing a $1.5 billion dollar project to build out a new jail which is set to bring nearly 1500 laborers to the city over the next 4 – 5 years. As well, we are seeing a mining boom taking place in our northern regions with the expansion of new energy saving minerals such as lithium becoming more sought after. A new lithium processing plant is set to be built within the next 3 – 4 years. We are at the early stages of the type of growth that I had experience in Southern Ontario and have the foresight to prepare my company to keep up with this growth as Thunder Bay continues to become an ideal place to invest.” Cupelli Said.
More information on Legacy Property Rental Management and the services they offer can be found on their website.
