Background

 

As with many clients, REIS has had a very long relationship with Willig, Williams & Davidson (WW&D), in this case going back close to 30 years when REIS helped negotiate a very fair lease for WW&D at the newly rehabilitated 1608 Walnut Street office condominium, which was another REIS project. 

 

WW&D has become one of the largest and most respected union-side labor law firms in the United States, representing labor unions and individual working people and their families.  During its stay at 1608 Walnut Street, WW&D began to grow and develop a need for larger space, WW&D requested REIS help in finding space to meet its growing needs and to accommodate its practice, which often required the need to use its office space after standard business hours.

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Project I

 

1845 Walnut Street

27,482 square feet

 

WW&D’s real estate needs were driven by the firm’s goals and objectives.   One of the big challenges was the need by WW&D to occupy its offices after normal business hours and on weekends, often with large groups of clients and other outside personnel.  While having 24 hours access to your office space is a standard office building operating criteria, the challenge was to find space that could provide affordable heating and air conditioning during these times.  Standard office buildings can provide after hours HVAC, however the cost to do so can be prohibitive, as the vast majority of buildings have systems designed only to condition the entire building and so the cost to the tenant can be extremely high if the entire system needs to be operated.

 

Given this criteria, REIS began its search and found an ideal location at 1845 Walnut Street, a Class A office building which stands alone on Rittenhouse Square and away from the many office towers housing other major law firms.

 

The next hurdle was finding and/or negotiating affordable after-hours HVAC.  REIS was able to accomplish this by negotiating lease terms that allowed for WW&D to install its own HVAC system which would operate independently of the building’s system.  Given this major undertaking, a long-term lease was negotiated which provided to WW&D office space on the top two floors of the building and was serviced by its own, separately installed HVAC system.   

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Project II

 

1845 Walnut Street

8,405 square foot expansion

 

WW&D continued to grow and as its lease contained an option to take on additional space, WW&D was able to accommodate its growth by exercising the option.  Since the space was the remaining space on one of its floors, WW&D was able to extend its HVAC system to include the new space.

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Project III

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1845 Walnut Street

9,010 square foot expansion

 

WW&D’s growth continued and was in yet another position of requiring additional space, although in this case potentially on a shorter term basis.  REIS was aware of space coming available on an adjacent floor in the building and negotiated very favorable terms that allowed WW&D to add the space to its premises and refurbish the space to meet WW&D’s needs.

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Project IV

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1845 Walnut Street

44,897 square foot renewal and refurbishment

 

WW&D was very happy in its space and when its lease was approaching the end of its term, REIS initiated discussions to extend WW&D’s tenancy.  One concern was the space had been occupied for some time and WW&D desired to have the space refreshed with new finishes and new, updated restrooms.  REIS negotiated with the landlord and was able to achieve the extension and also the allowance to refinish the space, with the landlord committing to refurbishing the restrooms.  REIS brought in a construction manager and helped coordinate the refurbishment by attended construction meetings and participating in scheduling decisions.  REIS also negotiated a future option to return previously acquired expansion space that had met WW&D’s needs, but was projected to no longer be required.

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Project V

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1845 Walnut Street

35,887 square foot HVAC equipment replacement and maintenance

 

With WW&D having been in its space for as long as it had, the useful life of WW&D’s dedicated HVAC system was coming to an end.  Given the importance of this infrastructure, during lease extension negations, as detailed above in Project IV, REIS simultaneously began soliciting proposals from leading contractors in the area and was able to negotiate a very favorable equipment replacement and maintenance agreement for WW&D.  This agreement assured WW&D of a long-term reliable system, and with this agreement in place, WW&D was now in a position to extend its stay at 1845 Walnut Street.  REIS took the lead in coordinating the installation of the new equipment to assure WW&D’s law practice was not impacted during replacement.

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Project VI

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1845 Walnut Street

35,887 square foot extension

 

Throughout WW&D’s stay at 1845 Walnut Street, available space within the building had become less and less as, given the building’s location on Rittenhouse Square, demand for space within the building was very high.  With WW&D occupying the top two floors of this Class A property, REIS knew the space could be re-leased at a premium rate.  Given this foresight and knowing WW&D might want to continue its stay at the building, REIS acted to leverage existing lease options and again extend WW&D’s stay at the building.  And, given WW&D has full control and maintenance of its own HVAC system, a term length was negotiated to coincide with the expected operational life span of WW&D’s private system.

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Project VII

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1845 Walnut Street

On-Going Lease Audit Support

 

Throughout WW&D’s long tenancy at 1845 Walnut Street, REIS has continued to monitor and review rental invoices received from the building.  As happens, given the complexity of many leases, billing errors do occur. And in its audit process, REIS had uncovered several significant billings errors which were addressed by REIS directly with the building, resulting in significant rebates and savings to WW&D.  As an ongoing, protocol, REIS continues to provide this value-added service to WW&D.

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Project VIII

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1845 Walnut Street

On-Going Subleasing of Excess Space

 

As with many other firms, WW&D must maintain space for its expected growth.  However, prior to occupying the space with an expanded staff, WW&D has the option to sublease its expansion space on an office-by-office bases.  Another value added service REIS has provided to WW&D over its long tenancy at 1845 Walnut Street is to take the lead in marketing any excess space to the real estate community, finding and vetting prospective tenants, negotiation sublease terms and finalizing subleases.  REIS monitors each sublease and keeps WW&D informed on a regular basis of the status of each.