Shortly afterward, the insurance company sold their entire portfolio to Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette. We continue to lease and manage the property.

GMAC scaled back operations, and Allstate left the building, which resulted in our being asked to develop a plan to re-tenant the building.

SCOPE OF ASSIGNMENT

Look at physical aspect of property and determine if it is still competitive with other first class buildings. If not, then develop an upgrade plan.

Research and prepare a marketing plan to re-tenant the building.

Review operations to identify any economies.

Contact all remaining tenants and renegotiate current leases.

Evaluate drive-through claims building and develop plan for future use.

RESULTS

We concluded that physically the building was attractive and needed no structural changes; however, interior finishes needed upgrading. Accordingly, we proceeded with the following:

The atrium floor is very large and had a nondescript carpet cover. We designed a center floor focal point made of granite. We used a light ceramic block tile for borders.

The lighting in the atrium was only through recessed down lights. We picked and installed a chandelier to be hung over the center floor granite focal point.

We replaced all common area hallway carpet and wall covering.

We replaced all interior plants and pots with higher quality materials.

We replaced the painted store front type doors with polished chrome doors.

Our leasing team researched the entire market to re-market the property. This plan included broker functions to get the brokerage community involved. In the end, the property was retenanted by our in-house leasing team.

We reviewed energy consumption and rebid all vendor contracts. We were able to reduce costs through new controls on the chiller and the use of new vendors for cleaning and grounds.

Our leasing team met with existing tenants and renegotiated all leases. For two large tenants, we were able to expand them and lengthen the remaining terms on their leases.

We looked at several options for the drive-through claims office. In the end we settled on two uses that would serve the buildings’ tenants and solidify tenant retention. We created a workout facility in part of the space. In this area, we installed state of the art fitness equipment, lockers, etc. In the other part of the building, we created a conference center where tenants could hold large meetings accommodating up to 40 people at a time.

The building is now 95 percent leased and the owner is now in a position to decide whether to sell the asset.