Real Estate Advisor UGL Equis Identifies Census Office Lease Locations and Supervises Location Readiness for the 2010 Census Launch

CHICAGO, March 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Since January 1, 2010, a significant number of Americans (estimated to reach 1,200,000) have or will become temporary employees of the U.S. Government with the majority fanning out into 435 Congressional districts to conduct the decennial census.  This effort is mandated by the Constitution of the United States.  They will canvas door to door, working to reach the numerous individuals who do not return their census forms by mail.  This is very serious business. The data collected as part of the census determines levels of Federal aid to schools and the monies available for other public endeavors.

Less obvious is that the canvassing workers in each district will be supported by a sizeable, well trained Census coordinating organization. They will be working in over 500 painstakingly selected and newly built-out offices located within each congressional district. The arduous task of locating suitable Census office facilities that meet the exacting standards established by the US Government was successfully completed by the leading national real estate advisory firm, UGL Equis.

"Some might say that the UGL Equis team has pre-canvassed the entire United States fully two years before the census actually begins," said Brian Adelstein, SVP UGL Equis, who was the National Project Manager for this effort. "The criteria that were established by the Census Bureau and U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) for each facility are long, precise, and typically eliminate many buildings from consideration. The UGL Equis team – 50-strong – literally walked hundreds of miles, and drove thousands more, to identify the qualifying Census office sites and to fulfill the specifications put forth by our client, the GSA," he continued.

The GSA established three basic space models for the Census offices. They range from 5,098 SF to 6,479 SF in size. Each location must meet numerous construction criteria and deliver on necessary amenities, must be accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and must have maneuverability for a 40' delivery truck. There is a requirement for a loading dock and a freight elevator to allow for the delivery of all the necessary documentation to be utilized by all the census takers. Locations must also offer convenient parking and near-by restaurants.

The Lessor of the space must be amenable to installing a security system that will be centrally monitored by the government. Spaces must accommodate dedicated and undedicated electrical receptacles, voice/data cabling, cipher locks and automatic door closers. Perimeter walls must be slab-to-slab construction. Doors must have deadbolt locks. Vestibules must be outfitted with 30" x 30" security glass monitoring windows. There must be overtime air-conditioning. The space must be ADA compliant, among other requirements.

"The list is long, the requirements are precise and the lead time was limited. Suitable space options were difficult to identify in many locations," said UGL Equis' Chris Larson, SVP who was the National Leasing Manager for this project. "Some areas we canvassed were rural and so sparsely inhabited that minimal to no suitable office facility existed. Some urban neighborhoods had adequate office supply but landlords were reluctant to enter a short term lease that required numerous property improvements. We were asking landlords to lease for a very short period, sixteen months to two years, while the norm for a commercial lease is five to ten years," explained Paul Michaelree, who supervised the UGL Equis effort in the Dallas Region.

"Long term leases enhance a property's value and enable the landlord to finance tenant improvements at the local bank. The short term leases required by the Census, coupled with the need for substantial and disruptive tenant improvements, did not make financial sense for many smaller real estate owners," explained Mr. Larson.  

To encourage such Lessors to enter into short term agreements, UGL Equis and GSA creatively engineered an accelerated TI amortization option to Lessors, on a case by case basis (through which Lessors would receive reimbursement for the cost of the tenant build out within the first three months of the lease), allowing them to secure more favorable borrowing terms from their banks, thus mitigating risk.

Rigorous organizational skill was at the root of UGL Equis' success in ensuring GSA met Census' requirements.  The firm created a 31 milestone action plan to train brokers and to monitor their activities.  Sophisticated software was employed to log thousands of market site surveys, record a daunting amount of data and documentation, and to record progress through every stage of the assignment, from location identification for nearly 500 offices – through the lease negotiations – to the space build-out programs for each office.

"Our efforts were divided into two phases," explained Mr. Adelstein. "In August 2007, we began work on finding the first 150 locations. In June 2008 we embarked on securing the second set of 344 additional locations. We had the benefit of lessons learned from the initial locations completed and refined procedures accordingly. We organized our project teams to cover the 12 Census Regions which encompassed 11 GSA Regions across 50 States and Puerto Rico.  I truly believe that only a firm with UGL Equis' breadth, superior local market knowledge, process driven approach, determination, and experience could successfully serve the government's needs across the entire USA. We are proud that our ability to manage a single standardized process allowed us to work productively with the GSA to support the Census effort in this monumental and important task", Mr. Adelstein continued.

Robert Peck, Commissioner of Public Buildings, General Services Administration, provided these sentiments to employees regarding the effort, "Congratulations to everyone who helped us meet the Oct 1, 2009, deadline to deliver more than 500 Census offices.  This is an amazing feat.  We provide services to many important federal programs, but not many that were established specifically by the US Constitution."  He also extended his thanks to UGL Equis for its work with GSA on the Census project.

About UGL Equis Corporation

UGL Equis is a corporate real estate firm that focuses exclusively on the business space user. The company has more than 42,000 affiliated employees in 14 countries around the world through its parent company UGL. Chicago-based UGL Equis provides comprehensive real estate solutions through portfolio strategy and management, transaction advisory, corporate finance, project services, workplace integration, data management, facility management, development management and audit and recovery services for national and global companies with office, industrial and retail opportunities throughout the United States, Mexico, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. UGL Equis and its sister company UGL Unicco, are subsidiaries of UGL Limited (ASX: UGL). For additional information, please visit www.ugl-equis.com.

SOURCE UGL Equis Corporation