Veritas

An experienced real estate investment firm in San Francisco was looking to downsize their office after switching to a hybrid work environment in 2022. They needed to relocate furniture for their Executive Officers as well as computer equipment for roughly 150 employees. Select pieces of furniture from their existing space needed to be relocated to a company-owned warehouse. The rest of the furniture was set to be decommissioned with the space. Impec Group was brought on board to manage the bidding process and all vendor aspects relating to the build-out of the new space and relocation/decommission of their existing space. Planning the timeline for this project would be difficult, as the buildout of their new space would begin after they moved in.

Impec Group’s approach was to provide a two-person team; one manager to work closely with the construction team on the buildout of the client’s new space and the other to manage the relocation and decommission of their existing office. This approach allowed our group to maintain a consistent presence in meetings and on walk-throughs with the client and vendors. Having plenty of prior experience with relocations in the Financial District proved invaluable in anticipating some of the challenges that are unique to executing a move in a busy downtown location with strict regulations.

Impec Group’s strategy was to advance vendor activity two months before a typical project would begin. Having multiple vendors, the daily scope was carefully defined, with limited margin for changes. The team would meet weekly to go over roles and timelines. Understanding the client’s concerns, our team bid the project out to several general contractors and moving companies. This client relied on our expertise with electrical, low voltage and furniture installation service providers to adhere to the union requirements as defined by each building.

Our group not only manages a project, but also becomes an integral part of the team. We listen to, learn from, and understand our client’s needs, enabling us to effectively communicate the scope of the project verbally and in written form to all vendors. Additionally, by working closely with vendors and understanding their processes, we are able to create and share our detailed digital timeline in Microsoft Project.

We’ve found that taking a strategic approach to hiring vendors can have cost benefits when working on projects in the Financial District. Many of the buildings require above standard insurance requirements as well as union labor. For our client, a union company was called in to handle the furniture teardown, while two separate non-union companies were hired to handle the relocation. One mover relocated the company to their new space and another company moved furniture to a company-owned warehouse in Treasure Island.

The relocation to the new space, the relocation to their warehouse, and the decommission were completed successfully. Due to a few setbacks beyond our control, our timeline was pushed out a few weeks. This, in turn, affected the overall budget, for which the client approved a change order.

Our project manager rose to the challenge of creating a timeline for multiple vendors. Through close collaboration, we were able to understand the individual considerations within the scope of the project and develop a one-month schedule. Our clients were particularly impressed with our ability to create a comprehensive schedule despite working with limited information.

This collaboration with our client and vendors led to our project manager being seen as a source of advice on how they could use some of the tools we use to organize their own projects.

After the successful move, the construction started and was completed with employees in place with minimal disruption and disturbance. It took us about six weeks to complete and the client was very pleased with the result and how professional the construction team was. Ultimately, the client expressed their gratitude and acknowledged they didn’t know how they would have managed without our assistance.