The (executive) Suite Life: Appreciating the importance of transit when selecting an office space

As I type this, I’m sitting in an office at Avenue Business Center, which occupies the entire third floor at 500 N. Michigan Ave.  I mention the address because it is not only a feature but also a benefit of the space.  Size of the office space, location in the city, proximity to clients or [...]

A Tale of Six Cities - CFO.com’s Alix Stuart analyzes corporate real estate stats in six major US cities

Alix Stuart’s A Tale of Six Cities is a well-written article about considerations a CFO must make related to real estate and peripheral costs impacted by real estate, like cost of living.  In the article, Alix identifies six major cities - 2 on the East Coast, 2 on the West Coast and 2 in the Central [...]

The Under-Utilized Tenant Representative

NOTE: This post applies more to small and mid-sized businesses than for large enterprises with in-house real estate and facilities employees.
Since I transitioned into commercial real estate, I have served as a tenant representative for thirteen clients across eighteen active or completed transactions.  About one-third of these deals have come from existing corporate clients, while [...]

How investing outside your organization can pay dividends

About a month back, I expressed my thoughts on Dennis Donovan’s theory of location velocity, in which he expresses the need to analyze current conditions and future trends in order to select the best site for a headquarters or major operations facility.  Curiously, almost in a rebuttal to Donovan’s theories, Elizabeth King Forstneger, Director of [...]