How to Maximize Commercial Real Estate Utilization

CRE_Utilization_Maximize

1. Floor Plan

In contrast to decorating a residential property, where style is often more of a driving force behind decisions than say, functionality, efficiency should be the top concern when setting up commercial spaces. Of course a level of decorum is important to maintain, but it should never get in the way of essential job functions. There are two main considerations:

First, process efficiency is important. In other words, calculations should be made to determine which teams and physical resources should be close to which other teams and resources in order to minimize waste. For example, an apparently harmless decision to place a photocopier in a hidden corner of an office may translate into many aggregated hours of lost productivity. Or placing two offices that share a great deal of communication should be, if possible, in close proximity with each other to minimize this type of waste.

Second, the importance of making necessary renovations cannot be overstated. Whether a company is moving in, or has been there for some time, having "perfect" offices in your commercial real estate is far more valuable in the long run than having to adapt to one's sub-optimal surroundings.

2. Does having many locations make sense?

Corporate real estate tenants should constantly revisit the question of their location(s). Having a number of offices may certainly add a bit of prestige to a firm, but the opening of satellite offices for prestige alone is a bad idea. Needing more space due to growth is enviable, but it may make more sense to move the entire operation to a larger venue instead of renting an additional smaller property to take care of the overflow.
Conversely, in some other cases - particularly if a company serves many clients face to face - it may be wise to divide one larger office into a number of smaller locations in order to better serve customers' needs. Either way, the important thing is to ensure that corporate real estate holdings are serving the company's best interest, and not vice versa.

3. Understand your needs.

The only way to know if offices are serving a company well is for the company to have well defined needs. Future problems can be avoided by planning ahead and only becoming a tenant at a location that satisfies all current requirements, and has the potential to take care of future needs as well. Moving into a space that can only accommodate your current staff just before you plan a large wave of hiring is just as silly as moving into a large space before a strategic long-term downsizing.

Needs should constantly be reassessed to ensure that a company's past corporate real estate decisions adequately fit the company's present and future plans. The fact that moving can involve a lot of work is independent of whether or not a current location is meeting a company's requirements.