Review the Asset Base

James Alexander Consultants are helping bring clarity to the challenges the asset portfolio’s of their clients bring.  Determining the relevance your owned or leased assets has to your business and its long term effect is fundamental to ensuring you have the correct profile in place.  Planning and managing the utilisation of those assets and their place in your business is our speciality.

James Alexander Consultants are expert in assessing your portfolio and, with you, determining a strategy to develop the correct balance of assets, their relevance and performance for you.  We develop, plan and implement the strategy, leaving you to focus on core activity and opportunity.

Our focus is to maximise the opportunity your built and land assets brings to your business whilst minimising the liabilities.  Get in touch with us to see how we can help you address lease related problems, acquisitions or disposals and help bring your portfolio into line for your business needs.

eMail us on innovation@jaltd.co.uk or see our contact page for our numbers.  We look forward to speaking with you.

L is for...

Leasehold:

The occupation of commercial business premises by means of a lease from a private landlord or an institutional lease from a pension fund or similar is a well tried and tested method of getting the real estate you need to undertake your core business activities.

In recent years there has been a movement in the manner in which there leases have come to be drafted with, arguably, more flexibility being driven into the process by market demands.  The days of institutional leases of 25 years, with no breaks and upwards only rent reviews as the norm are probably no more, with the legacy if these practices of the 1980’s and early 1990’s hanging around for a few more years to come.

For most large organisations, the acquisition of new commercial property by this means is a well trodden path which holds no concerns or fears.  For those less experienced, here are my top 5 tips when considering this undertaking:

• Term:  The term of any lease and the potential for breaks (which must be able to be exercised by either party, not just the landlord) in that lease, must align with your organisational business plan over the medium to long term.

• Demise:  Make sure you are clear on what is included and what is excluded in the demise you are considering.  Favourites for unintended inclusion and exclusion are toilets and lifts (elevators for those in the US).  Both of these carry the potential for considerable maintenance and upgrade costs, make sure you know what else you are getting in your square footage!

• Total Costs:  As well as your rent, don’t forget that there will be other costs associated with taking over leasehold space.  Business rates are a given, and can be a significant expenditure item and also make sure you understand what service charge your landlord is proposing to levy and what you get for it.  There may be others too, some landlord are providing other services on an opt in basis, make sure you tick the opt out box if you are not going to use them.

• Legal:  Commercial leases are significant, weighty and binding documents.  Ensure that you have sought, and importantly listened to, professional advice about the lease you are about to enter into.  It is essential that the lawyer that acts for you is a specialist in the field and knows their way around the clauses that will be buried somewhere in the lease, ready to pop up at an inopportune time to cause you problems.

• Alterations, changes and dilapidations:  You have you new lease in place, you may even be enjoying a rent free period to fit it out to your requirements.  Make sure you know whether you need your landlords permission for those works, any subsequent changes, what process that permission will require to achieve and what your liabilities are in respect of dilapidations at the end of the lease.

James Alexander Consultants can help you find your way through to the best solution to your accommodation needs.

eMail us on innovation@jaltd.co.uk or see our contact page for our numbers.  We look forward to speaking with you.

G is for...

Growth:

A few brief thoughts today on how your real estate supports your organisation in times of growth.

The key word in the previous sentence is the word support.  It was once commented that a £100,000 building will house £1,000,000 worth of equipment that will produce £100,000,000 worth of product.  The message being, that without the £100,000 shed the production is not going to happen.  In themselves the built assets do not form part of the core activities of you r business, but without them, or with the wrong assets, the business is not going to function in the correct way.

So, where is your £100,000 shed?  Is it the right size & shape, is it adaptable and flexible for your needs and, most importantly is it going to keep up with the business development that you have planned?

Regular review and assessment of the facilities you occupy will help you determine whether this is the case:

• Can developing new working practices and work patterns help with your business growth?
• Can your site accommodate new temporary buildings to address immediate requirements for additional accommodation?
• Do lease restrictions mean that your current facility will not, over time, be suitable for your purposes and is now the right time to plan to move?
• Will new compliance regulations in your business or industry mean that refurbishment is required?  Will this prove to be prohibitively expensive in the current location?

 You will be aware that property related transactions do not move too quickly and, sometimes, not too smoothly either.  Planning well ahead for your businesses operational real estate requirements will be key in achieving success.

James Alexander Consultants are expert in assessing your portfolio and, with you, determining a strategy to develop the correct balance of assets, their relevance and performance for you.  We develop, plan and implement the strategy, leaving you to focus on core activity and opportunity.

eMail us on innovation@jaltd.co.uk or see our contact page for our numbers.  We look forward to speaking with you.

Review Time

James Alexander Consultants are helping bring clarity to the challenges the asset portfolio’s of their clients bring.  Determining the relevance your owned or leased assets has to your business and its long term effect is fundamental to ensuring you have the correct profile in place.  Planning and managing the utilisation of those assets and their place in your business is our speciality.

James Alexander Consultants are expert in assessing your portfolio and, with you, determining a strategy to develop the correct balance of assets, their relevance and performance for you.  We develop, plan and implement the strategy, leaving you to focus on core activity and opportunity.

Our focus is to maximise the opportunity your built and land assets brings to your business whilst minimising the liabilities.  Get in touch with us to see how we can help you address lease related problems, acquisitions or disposals and help bring your portfolio into line for your business needs.

eMail us on innovation@jaltd.co.uk or see our contact page for our numbers.  We look forward to speaking with you.

Sweat the Assets

James Alexander Consultants are helping bring clarity to the challenges the asset portfolio’s of their clients bring.  Determining the relevance your owned or leased assets has to your business and its long term effect is fundamental to ensuring you have the correct profile in place.  Planning and managing the utilisation of those assets and their place in your business is our speciality.

James Alexander Consultants are expert in assessing your portfolio and, with you, determining a strategy to develop the correct balance of assets, their relevance and performance for you.  We develop, plan and implement the strategy, leaving you to focus on core activity and opportunity.

Our focus is to maximise the opportunity your built and land assets brings to your business whilst minimising the liabilities.  Get in touch with us to see how we can help you address lease related problems, acquisitions or disposals and help bring your portfolio into line for your business needs.

eMail us on innovation@jaltd.co.uk or see our contact page for our numbers.  We look forward to speaking with you.