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Office Relocation Guide When To Start Planning Your Office Relocation, Part 2

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In the first article in this series, we set out a scenario where a company has decided to relocate offices and has set a timeframe of six months to achieve the relocation, from start to finish. Whilst this is an arbitrary timeframe, it is not an unusual one. The question we seek to answer is it long enough to satisfactorily complete this business critical project, or can an office relocation be properly completed in less time.

At the end of the last article, we were three months into the allotted six, but have researched, sourced and acquired the new office premises.

You have also carried out an initial assessment of the amount of space your company requires. Before you get to the point of instructing solicitors to agree terms for your new property (whether to lease or to buy) you need to know the office will work  as you need it to, so I propose to take you back to the point you are instructing commercial property agents to look for your new property.

What you also need to be doing at this early stage is to find a design company or architect who can complete the detailed design of your chosen office. This designer may be part of a design and build contractor who will take responsibility for both these elements of the project, or you may choose a separate contractor to work from the plans drawn up by the designer or architect. Whichever route you take, you need to have the designer on board to provide indicative designs around your shortlisted buildings before solicitors are instructed so that you know the office can be designed with a layout that will work as you need it to.

If you are following the design and build route then you will also be selecting your main contractor for the project. There can be time benefits for using a single source for these roles but it will mean that the contractor will need to be selected before they are able to price against detailed designs. This is a common occurrence but you should draw up some benchmarks on which to compare contractors and their costs.

If all of this is sounding a daunting task and you have concerns that a contractor may wow you with their designs abut then not be able to perform to a budget or the timescales you require, then you may want to consider an overriding professional to bring the process together. This can be in the form of a Project Manager who can tender the design and construction elements for you as well as advise on the suitability of the shortlisted building. They will look after the construction process and monitor timescales and costs throughout the project and advise you on construction elements you may not have experience of. The time you will save in personally monitoring the project can easily offset their fees and you have the reassurance that construction costs are properly accounted for. An alternative to a project manager may be a quantity surveyor who will be able to advise specifically on the project costs but is unlikely to provide the project monitoring elements.

In the final part of this series we look at the fit out and physical relocation into the new office premises.

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