"Ask five economists and you'll get five different answers-six if one went to Harvard ". -Edgar R. Fiedler-
An important piece of the office leasing process that is most often neglected is the preliminary work to establish the needed criteria for office space needs.
Often, when office tenants are considering an office space requirement, it is usually a result of an upcoming lease expiration than any need to make a change in their space. Firms in Europe have occupied the same space in the same building in the same town for decades and even centuries. Even firms with the highest of high tech needs fit right in on the fifth floor of a five hundred year old building with no elevator.
Lease expirations must be looked at as an opportunity to reevaluate your use of space, which starts with how your company operates functionally.
When you have decided it is time to start the process, it will be natural to want to go out and tour some buildings and kick some tires. This may generate many questions which are unanswerable and start some form of negotiations that were unintended. This puts the cart way before the horse, and forces you to lose control. Leave the urge to see buildings until you are in the best position to manage the information. This information flows from the needs assessment and criteria.
Creating a spreadsheet of what is ideal for your company will establish a benchmark against which to test not only every other office space you may see in the upcoming year, but also your present space. Establishing this definitive criteria allows you to test each building you may consider against objective criteria. Issues like view, image and feel can wait and be tested later after the objective test is met. Having this information will streamline the process of touring buildings as certain ones can be disqualified.
No single element during the leasing process will have such a profound impact on every other decision you make in the future other than the Criteria, Needs Assessment and Programming.
Needs Assessment are the physical, tangible items of your lease which measure how you use the space best to accomplish your business planning goals. Examples would include each individual in the office, each function from offices to storage, work areas, private offices and or modular partitioning, files, conference areas, kitchen or coffee facilities, break rooms, floor size, floor weight capacity, life safety requirements, parking, telecommunications, automation, supplies, board room, reception area, mail/copy room, executive dining room, storage, computer room, special electrical equipment, special HVAC requirements, law library, and floor weight capacity concerns.
The Criteria are the general senses that you wish to apply to the company such as image, client or customer perception, view from office, view toward or of the building from outside, distance from employee's or executive's homes, proximity to customers or vendors, corporate identity, other tenants in the building and services such as restaurants, service stations, banks, cash machines, and parking. Address any issues such as the owner, CEO or President likes a certain sized office, requires proximity to his/her country club or can only be in single-story buildings. Are there any real ancillary aspects such as, needing to be in proximity to biggest client, concerns about your competition and corporate identity.
Programming is the inter-relation between the Needs Assessment/Criteria and any property which may be considered. The programming also involves diagramming the tenant's functions to their preferred configuration, such as department growth, optimum adjacency and interaction with other company functions.
Nothing contained herein is to be considered legal advice. Always seek legal advice when evaluating any legal document.
