The Coldwell Banker Commercial® organization’s parent company Realogy Holdings Corp has recently moved its headquarters from Parsippany, NJ to nearby Madison, NJ.  Realogy has roughly 1,000 employees from several different brands including: Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate, CENTURY 21®, Coldwell Banker®, Coldwell Banker Commercial®, The Corcoran Group®, ERA®, Sotheby’s International Realty® and NRT LLC. 

Although I wasn’t directly involved with the planning for this immense move; I was one of many that survived through it.  There are a lot of things that were done right that I wanted to share with the commercial real estate industry in case you are bringing a large scale tenant to a new building.

Communication – Realogy went above and beyond with the communication, keeping us informed from everything to construction schedule to move in dates; I always felt I knew what was going on.  It was all stored in one spot on the company’s intranet site for easy access

Videos – along with the communications came a series of light-hearted videos; I think this alleviated some of the stress of the move

Packing of boxes and proper labeling – this was something simple, but it ensured all boxes arrived to the proper location.  Every office, cubicle and conference room in the new building had a number associated with it…you just had to put your proper number on the box.  Low and behold, all boxes were waiting for you on your move in day.

Floorplan – what good are a bunch of numbered rooms, if you don’t know where the room is located.  A floorplan of the new space is an essential item to help employees know where they are supposed to be; where your new seat was going to be

Transportation Options – moving to a new area can be tough and stressful.  Realogy had a meeting to discuss route plans, public transportation options and how to avoid some traffic

Welcome Kits – after we got to the new building, there was a document that explained the amenities in the new location

All in all, I felt it was a pretty smooth transition into our new building.  I would have added a few items such as local restaurant reviews.  You can find that information on the internet; but highlighting a few restaurants in the new area would have been a nice touch.  Now, if I can only figure out the new conference room names…

By John Boyer, Director of Marketing, Coldwell Banker Commercial