Achieving Corporate Goals Through Real Estate Strategy

THE CLIENT

RENAISSANCE PHARMACEUTICALS, C-Suite team invited The Acclaim Group in for a broad discussion on real estate costs and upcoming lease expiration planning, which on the surface are standard and transactional real estate services. After having big picture discussions with the leadership team, we had a clear vision of their business goals and challenges going forward. These challenges included a significant gap in talent attraction and retention, cultural continuity, branding, efficiency, below average internal collaboration and parking shortages. It was through these conversations that we realized it was the CEO’s dream to have a centralized corporate campus. However with long term leases in place, for buildings that were spread throughout a city, and several owned properties, the goal didn’t seem achievable at anytime in the foreseeable future. This was a challenge that the Acclaim Group was well equipped to take on.

THE NEED

Initially, the company was simply looking to analyze their options on an upcoming lease expiration on one of five properties that were all located within a 2-mile radius. Through deeper analysis, The Acclaim team was able to discover the larger need for opportunity assessment around their entire portfolio. Working along side a new C-Suite team (CEO, CFO and COO who were all new to the company with the previous 18 months), we identified significant business goals that could be achieved/supported through dynamic real estate strategy. Their primary goals were:

Reducing overall Real Estate costs
Alleviate inefficiencies created by travel time between buildings
Re-deploying long term capital tied up in two owned properties
Improving talent attraction and retention rate which lagged behind the industry
Increase production capacity and improve collaboration
Developing a central cultural theme and cohesive branding

THE APPROACH

The Acclaim Group’s applied our wide-ranging approach to this project, beginning with questions centered on their overall business (not simply real estate centric issues). We created highly detailed models around their current and projected costs, labor analytics, collaboration, efficiency and innovation, as well as an “opportunity assessment” around real estate. Practices applied focused on:

Labor and Work Force Analytics
Site Selection
Infrastructure
Enhancing Business Continuity
Accessibiltiy
Government Incentives
Optimal monetization of owned assets
Construction and Design

THE RESULTS

Acclaim implemented a truly comprehensive solution that transformed their existing, cumbersome and expensive portfolio of leased and owned real estate into a support mechanism that greatly accelerated achievement of their business goals and objectives.

Extensive screening, and competitive bid, identified two landlord/buyer partners that best aligned with the client’s needs and were the most aggressive and flexible in crafting solutions in terms of costs, funding, and timing.
Reduced client’s number of buildings in park from six to four, while increasing overall capacity.
Shifted significant capex spend to landlord/buyer(s).
Structured short-term, flexible leasebacks of two owned facilities that allowed them to monetize the owned assets, at top of market pricing, and deploy that capital back into the business at a much higher rate of return than the status quo of owning the properties.
Engaged landlord to restructure current HQ lease despite having 6+ years remaining on the lease term. That landlord also funded significant capital improvements to the property.
Obtained municipal tax abatement reducing taxes on 2 properties by +/-68% for 10 years.
Secured extremely favorable lease terms on two custom built buildings flanking their HQ. Buildings were designed to maximize efficiency, drive collaboration and unify branding/culture. Parking shortages were also alleviated.
Talent attraction & retention, collaboration, innovation and efficiency all skyrocked.

THE CLIENT

THE NEED

THE APPROACH

THE RESULTS

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