A major banking organization augments it's facility resources.

The situation:
Reeling from merger - generated consolidation
and change, a major banking organization
(First Union Bank, formerly CoreStates Bank)
realized that a building in a prime suburban office
campus location, with a lease obligation covering
over 44,000 square feet, was quickly coming up for
renewal. The building had been the home
of several important financial departments,
including the Trust and Private Banking Divisions
of the bank. The building was highly desirable
for these divisions because of the prestigious address
of the facility and the central location of the campus.
Operations within the building took place
on several floors, with some areas being overloaded
with people, yet some areas more open and
inefficiently used. In addition, several
support departments with personnel were split,
occupying an additional 20,000 square feet
in a building that was twenty minutes away.
This second building was located in an area
that was less prestigious, but had much lower
lease rates. With decisions needing to be made
about building lease commitments and with
operations running with functional inefficiencies,
a study of options was necessary to distill and
to direct a path of suitable actions.
Our questions:
Should the prime building’s lease be renewed in full,
or can operations be consolidated within the building
to release space and drop overall lease commitment?
Can personnel located in the second building be
brought into the primary building?
Is there enough space to accommodate all departments,
current and with growth? Should personnel
be redistributed in the two buildings to release space
in the high rent facility and to take advantage of the
lower rent facility? Should a new facility be considered
for a move and consolidation of all personnel?
The MGZA process:
As strategic facility consultants, MGZA looks at the
multiple objectives of the organization.
In this case, key issues included:
• Provide synergy of operation for all business functions.
• Provide an environment in an appropriate location
for operations and is an concise statement
to the level of operations.
• Eliminate inefficiencies and duplications of functions,
particularly support functions.
• Provide each division with appropriate space and
support to conduct efficient and effective operations.
• Eliminate under-utilized space that had crept into
plan layouts due to changing operations.
• Provide potential savings by identification of space
currently under lease can it be released?
The solution:
MGZA’s analysis of personnel functions,
growth patterns and support needs led
to an assessment that operations could be consolidated,
leading to a reduction of up to 12,000 square feet
of space savings in the primary, high rent building.
After evaluating several planning options,
it was determined that further economic benefits
could be achieved by combining operations
in the two buildings into one centrally located new facility,
that would take advantage of lease and fit-out incentives.
The organization consolidated operations into
a new 50,000 square foot suburban office campus in
a phased move over the course of a three month period.