PRELIMINARY PLANNING

Seeing that Silicon Valley is currently one of, if not the most expensive commercial real estate market in the country, it pays to plan ahead in order to avoid many unnecessary headaches and unforeseen costs down the road. We are here to help with this process. A few things to keep in mind while thinking about your next real estate relocation:

HEADCOUNT PROJECTIONS / SPACE PROGRAMMING: Industry standards used to call for 250 square feet per person. Today, many companies are value engineering their space usage and many are achieving closer to 100 SF per employee. We can help by putting together a space program customized for your business to calculate how much space you need today and how much you should budget for future growth. This will help formulate how many desks, private offices, conference rooms and touch down spaces are needed.

BUDGET: We want to help you get the most bang for your buck. In order to figure out the best real estate solution, it is important to first understand the budget.

LOCATION: This may seem like an obvious one but when we look at rents by sub-market, the difference between Downtown Palo Alto and Milpitas can be a factor of 10:1. We provide our clients with a employee commute pattern analysis that helps pinpoint where most people are coming from and sometimes it will uncover some surprising truths about where you should focus your search.

FORMULATE A PLAN: In every real estate decision there are going to be multiple factors that weigh in and not all hold the same weight for each company. A few things to keep in mind:

• Timing - when do I need to be in the space?
• Flexibility - Do you want to secure a long term obligation or is there a need to be flexible so that a relocation is possible in the next 12-36 months?
• Image - how important is the class and image of the building? Will this site be customer facing?
• IT - Do you need a server room? If so, what are the connectivity requirements? How much dedicated HVAC is required?