The Andrews Real Estate Advisors
Method for Working with a Client Requiring Office Space
Define Client Considerations
Identify Solutions
Evaluate Alternatives
Develop Action Plan
Finalize Negotiations
Our Approach
The Andrews Real Estate Advisors Approach
Attention to details is the hallmark of AREA’s service. The firm has built a team of real estate specialists in the areas of commercial brokerage, architecture and interior design, building management, financial analysis, and legal advice. These experts work together to offer our clients an exceptionally broad and well-informed perspective on potential opportunities within the highly competitive metropolitan New York real estate market.
If your business selects other firms to provide design and/or other ancillary services, AREA will work closely with them as members of the project team. AREA can also recommend and/or negotiate the fees of the members of a team to represent your business in negotiations and in development of detailed requirements. These team members could include:
- Architects
- Real Estate Attorneys
- Mechanical Engineers
- Structural Engineers
- Elevator Consultants
- Mortgage Brokers
- Telecommunications Consultants
- Real Estate Accountant
The Real Estate Team
The Andrews Real Estate Advisors Team
Commercial Brokers ⎯
Our brokers are especially adept at developing vital information about market activity in sales and investment, leasing, building rentals, property management, and space planning.
To help you secure the best solution to your space needs our brokers draw upon Andrews Real Estate Advisers (“AREA”) technical resources covering architectural and interior design, building management, legal advice and financial analysis. Specifically, our brokers will:
- Work with your office space planning committee to define space and operating requirements.
- Evaluate your present lease situation with respect to potential relocation or renewal of lease(s).
- Organize a complete program covering lease analysis, evaluation of qualified properties, capital expenditures and potential future growth.
- Provide building comparisons of qualified properties.
- Institute preliminary space studies, define requirements and make a cost analysis.
- Conduct negotiations and make recommendations.
Define Client Considerations
Phase I:
Define Client Considerations
AREA realtors will carefully review business plans and objectives with you in order to develop information regarding existing leases, the general location to be considered, minimum floor sizes, time frame for the project and total space required both initially and for future growth. Specifically we will assess:
Square Footage Needs ⎯
The design group will prepare a Facilities Requirement Study, including your business’s personnel and square footage projections and documented functional needs by department unit. Based on that information, AREA will put together a stacking plan.
If the approximate square footage is not available from you, we will obtain this information by interviewing your department heads and making an inventory of existing equipment. Preliminary plans will suffice until a space is selected and negotiations are finalized.
Location Parameters ⎯
To determine the ideal location for our clients we ask them to prioritize the following considerations:
- Image and environment
- Proximity to clients, customers, suppliers, transportation, and labor pool
- Area amenities
Budget Requirements ⎯
The progress and success of any project is controlled by the budget. Quality sought and dollars spent are not always directly related.
AREA will prepare a general budget setting forth approximate costs involved in relocation of the offices over and above what is considered a building standard work letter. In addition, moving costs, telephone system, replacement or additional furniture, and general costs affiliated with a change of address, such as stationery, will be included in the analysis.
Building/System Requirements ⎯
With the assistance of design and management professionals, building and systems requirements for your firm will be established. These include:
- Amount of electrical current
- Type of air conditioning
- Side-core vs. center-core building
- Size of floors
- Floor load
- Ceiling heights
- Data communications needs
- Lower-level storage space
- Parking
Review of Existing Leases ⎯
A thorough analysis of your existing lease will be made. Detailed analyses will be made of the advantages and disadvantages of renewing your present lease or leasing in another location. Comparison of building options will be based on numbers provided by the owners and/or their agents and AREA’s estimation of the arrangements that can be made.
Identify Solutions
Phase II:
Identify Solutions
Based on the preliminary estimate of space required over the next 10 years, general location and needs particular to your business, AREA brokers will gather information on sites that meet these requirements. The following steps will be taken:
Identify Qualified Properties: ⎯
AREA’s ability to locate appropriate space, negotiate a lease, sublet offices or arrange buy-outs of existing leases for its clients is based on a three-pronged approach to the task.
- Using a highly sophisticated database that is updated daily, AREA brokers have instant access to information about every available space in metropolitan NYC.
- Our brokers regularly canvas all of the major office buildings looking for space leads. As a result of this activity, they develop first-hand knowledge of the strengths and/or weaknesses of each building’s management and level of services it offers.
- Additional vital information is developed by staying in constant contact with owners, renting agents, brokers and tenants, by letter, telephone or in person.
Analyze Buildings ⎯
AREA’s brokers will present information about all building operating systems from heating, ventilation and air-conditioning to security and data-communication systems. An analysis of the overall quality of management of buildings to determine which ones adequately meet other essential criteria for your business.
Visit Sites ⎯
At this point, you and AREA will visit locations that are of particular interest. After inspecting various premises, approximately three or four locations will be selected for in-depth analysis.
Conduct General Space Utilization Studies ⎯
Preliminary drawing will be prepared relating block studies to specific selected buildings. These drawings will help you to visualize the potential of the space and related construction costs.
Request Proposals ⎯
AREA will submit a Request for Proposal (RFP) to each of the owners or their agents for the three or four locations that are of the greatest interest.
Evaluate Alternatives
Phase III:
Evaluate Alternatives
In order to identify the most appropriate space for your business and develop an aggressive negotiation strategy, AREA will evaluate the following factors:
Lease Terms ⎯
AREA will compare qualified buildings based on terms offered by the owner and/or the building agent. These will include such basics as cost per rentable square foot adjusted so that each building has the same loss factor, term, free rent periods, construction time, electric costs, base years for escalations, tax increases, porter’s wage formulas, direct operating expenses, work allowances, building standard work letter values, and any other business terms for which a dollar value can be assigned. Projections will then be made to determine in today’s dollars the real cost per square foot of each building.
Where applicable and with information from your financial advisors, AREA will also prepare an analysis of the impact of lease terms, i.e., rent leveling, on GAP financial statements.
Physical Characteristics ⎯
It is essential to consider a building’s physical characteristics in order to ensure that your requirements can be met on a cost-effective basis. AREA will present the major physical characteristics of each building in chart form to facilitate comparison of properties.
Tenant Work Letters ⎯
All tenant work letters are not the same. Some provide unlimited drywall partitioning; others do not. The same is true with regard to electrical outlets, telephone outlets, lighting fixtures, doors, ceiling systems, communications systems, substitution provisions, and other items of importance. AREA will make comparisons and estimate a value for each work letter.
Financial Impact ⎯
AREA brokers will evaluate various lease proposals in a matrix. Comparisons will be made between CPI and Direct Operating formulas, as well as real estate tax escalations, taking into consideration transitional tax assessment, target tax assessment, and the tax consequences of any potential sale of the property.
Recommendations ⎯
AREA will make recommendations on all aspects involving the business terms of the negotiations conducted with owners or agents for the various qualified buildings. Finally, AREA after extensive discussion with your business, AREA will recommend specific buildings.
Develop Action Plan
Phase IV:
Develop Action Plan
The focus in this phase is to secure the best terms and prepare guidelines for implementation.
Prepare Offers and Counter Offers ⎯
AREA will work closely with your business, its legal advisors, architects and other consultants to facilitate development of comprehensive offers and counter offers to proposals received.
As part of the negotiating process, AREA will recommend standards to be adopted by the building relating to:
- Security
- Building access
- Building rules and regulations
- Freight elevator usage
- Cleaning specifications
While negotiations with building owners and/or their agents will be handled solely by AREA, all written proposals will be discussed thoroughly first with you and approved by you prior to submissions.
Manage Space Subletting ⎯
If the decision is made to take more space than is currently needed, AREA will take this into account when doing the financial analysis and, at the proper time, prepare rental schedules and assist in finding subtenants for the space to be subleased. AREA will also assist the legal staff in preparing a standard form of sublease and work letter.
Architectural Drawings ⎯
AREA will review in conjunction with your architect the drawings and specifications for construction to ensure that they meet the agreed-upon elements of work.
Exercise Quality Control ⎯
During the course of the entire project, AREA team members will prepare memos on decisions reached and directions to be taken on various items. These memos will be distributed to your representatives, the architect or engineers and other consultants on the project.
Finalize Negotiations
Phase V:
Finalize Negotiations ⎯
AREA, in conjunction with your advisors (engineers, attorneys, accountants, etc.), will conduct a complete review of the lease document in its final form. The focus is to ensure that all stipulations are captured appropriately in the document and to close out any open items.
