Making office relocation seamless when downtime isn’t an option

Challenge

A federal law enforcement agency faced a significant challenge; it planned to relocate two field offices and consolidate personnel from multiple locations. As a federal law enforcement agency, downtime to complete the relocation and consolidation was not an option—their 24/7 mission meant that operations must continue. Further complicating the effort was the existence of multiple leases, with team members stationed in multiple locations. The agency wanted to enhance team collaboration on mission critical activity through their consolidation, in addition to decreasing real estate costs.

Once the decision to consolidate was made, they realized two additional challenges. Relocating to a 100,000-square-foot office in New York City would require the agency to restack an existing, federally-owned building in order for the field office to be housed on contiguous floors. And a planned relocation to a 130,000-square-foot office in Kansas City required transitioning from existing leased space to a brand-new, state-of-the-art leased facility.

The agency turned to Guidehouse as its trusted advisor for all things facilities. Having provided construction project management, facility management, portfolio management, change management, and relocation management services to the organization since 2017, we knew that we could help successfully complete the relocation and consolidation while ensuring continuous operations for mission-critical projects during the transitions.

Approach

We managed all renovation, consolidation, and relocation efforts for both new offices—preserving mission continuity during the relocation and realizing the intended goals of enhanced collaboration and reduced real estate costs after completion. 

To complete this relocation, our critical responsibilities included:

• Gathering requirements and selecting project sites
• Producing space plans that would meet end-user requirements, working with the architectural, engineering, and design teams
• Coordinating with existing lessors and collaborating with the General Services Administration on lease expirations to align schedules and expectations 
• Reviewing cost estimates and recommending best-value contractors and vendors
• Creating and managing an aggressive, detailed phased relocation schedule to ensure minimal downtime
• Emphasizing the importance of mission continuity with internal and external stakeholders consistently
• Providing post-move support and relocation management

Impact

• Resolving emergent challenges: New York
  • Maintained schedule despite frequent design changes resulting from turnover in executive management positions
  • Concurrent replacement of end-of-life, 25+ year old, HVAC infrastructure including a 24/7 emergency cooling system and asbestos abatement
• Creative furniture planning resulted in $175k in savings: Kansas City
  • Used internal labor support for furniture disposal avoiding incurring these costs in current fiscal year
  • Transferred good condition used furniture to a nearby sub-office renovation
  • Reused/reconfigured existing good-condition technical furniture in new field office