Consolidated American Services Case Study
The Challenge – Aligning Real Estate Decisions to Corporate Goals
In March 2007, Consolidated American Services (CAS) needed to make significant real estate decisions in order to keep up with the company's rapid growth. It had already acquired the nation's fastest growing property management company, Riverstone Residential Group, and its growth mode remained full throttle. With 3,500 employees nation-wide and more than 200 in Dallas, CAS needed to ensure that its own real estate choices were carefully aligned with the company's overarching growth goals as it moves toward its goal of leading the consolidation of the real estate services sector in the U.S. CAS outsourced the role of real estate executive to Spencer, which focused on developing a real estate strategy for CAS that would address all aspects of the company's real estate decisions and align them with the company's goals.
"We knew, for example, that our need for new office space needed to be made with a great deal of consideration of the company's overarching business plans," said Rachel Purcell, chief financial officer for CAS. "We needed a partner – someone we trusted – to really get in here, understand our business and guide us through real estate decisions in both the short- and long-term."
At the time Spencer was engaged, CAS and Riverstone subleased office space in Bryan Tower from Trammell Crow Residential. Not only had the space become insufficient for the company, it also realized it needed to establish its brand both internally and externally with a new headquarters location that would also provide opportunity for even further growth.
Phase One of the Strategy– Headquarters Relocation
CAS hired Spencer to act as its outsourced real estate department – evaluating a wide range of real estate decisions on behalf of the company, of which relocation was the first phase. Spencer developed a complete analysis that considered the overarching corporate mission, acquisition strategies, short and long term growth projections, and multiple office locations. Ultimately, Spencer provided a real estate strategy that would be a catalyst to accomplishing the company's mission and continued growth expectations. Spencer counseled CAS to keep its corporate headquarters in Dallas – leaving Bryan Tower and relocating to Renaissance Tower. The new lease transaction totals 62,402 square feet of office space for CAS' more than 200 Dallas-based employees.
The relocation element of the real estate strategy became a sizable project with a number of challenges that required swift decision-making on the part of Spencer and its client. "The headquarters relocation was the first phase of the engagement," said Chaz Walker, senior associate at Spencer. "We were met with an extremely short timeline that included a market and relocation analysis, lease negotiation, RFP process, decision support, design and construction services, furniture procurement, move logistics, and post-move analysis. It was paramount that Spencer provide all of these services acting as the client's in-house real estate department because it brought together the project team and the corporate executives as the project moved forward at record speed."
The Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Connection
"My favorite part of this project is the way it came to be," said Kathy Hansen, president of Spencer. "There are seven CREW members involved in this first phase of this engagement. I believe this underscores the significance and influence the CREW network can have – especially in promoting one another's services."
Kathy Hansen is a past president of CREW Dallas and Rachel Purcell, chief financial officer of CAS, is also a former board member of CREW Dallas. Lorraine Teel of StratVisor Group, also a CREW Dallas past president and former board member referred the CAS project to Spencer, and Kathy Permenter (and her partner Russ Johnson) of CB Richard Ellis represented Renaissance Tower in the lease negotiations.
"As we discussed the dynamics of CAS' real estate strategy, we were struck by the unique CREW thread that brought this project to fruition. In keeping with the CREW mission of advancing the success of women in the commercial real estate, we decided to make a tangible step in that direction and make CREW membership a prerequisite for any real estate services companies involved in this project," said Kathy. "It just made sense. We were looking for the best professionals to serve our client, so we turned to CREW members."
With that standard in place, Spencer hired Interprise (Katie Berg) to develop architectural and interior design plans, Schmidt & Stacy Consulting Engineers (Donna Buchanan) to develop the MEP drawings, and Scott & Reid (Summer Cook) to complete the construction – rounding out the CAS relocation project with a total of seven Dallas-area CREW members on the team.
The Value Creation
"I was extremely pleased with the service we received from Spencer," said Rachel Purcell. "Kathy and her team really assisted us long before our actual move. We had interim space issues that she assisted in solving. I really enjoyed working with Spencer."