Washington, D.C. – International Systems Management Corp. (ISM) had a new contract coming in that required the company to move from shared space at a client site to its own facility.
Facing a fast-approaching deadline, ISM officials called on Scheer Partners, a leading provider of commercial real estate services in the greater Washington and Baltimore metropolitan regions, to manage the process and help secure a new lease for the company.
Scheer Partners announced today that ISM recently opened a new 1,000-square-foot office at 660 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, a 41,000-square-foot building owned by Stanton Development Corp.
Previously, ISM occupied space at 80 M St. SE. ISM specializes in providing high-quality program-management and systems-engineering support to U.S. DoD international-assistance and cooperative-development programs.
Mike Norris, LEED AP, a Scheer Partners vice president who represented ISM in its new lease, says the real estate process began with understanding ISM’s business drivers, such as contract stipulations, information-technology needs and financial requirements, then aligning those drivers with the right facility.
Other key components of the process included developing a feasible timeline and program – steps that are frequently skipped by businesses and other organizations that search for space rather than following the process.
“Companies often take a hurried approach to real estate; then, they’re not focused enough to evaluate and negotiate key elements of the facility and deal structure while they still have the leverage to do so,” says Norris, who leads Scheer Partners’ Tysons Corner office. “ISM followed the process. As a result, it not only has a cost-effective and functional facility, but also a lease that protects the company as it grows.”
Ralph Lusby, business manager at ISM, says the new office “gives us a place to run a lot of company business with some privacy and enables us to work on proposals in a group environment.”
Commenting on his experience with the process, Lusby adds that “Mike took care of the negotiations from beginning to end.” Lusby advises other companies facing their own business changes that may affect their real estate needs to “definitely get a broker involved early in the process and provide as much information as you can.”