How Lease Expirations are Impacting Used Office Furniture Supply...

In the past three days I have had the opportunity to look at more quality used office furniture then I've seen in the past three years. The two inventories I looked at shared a lot of characteristics:

• Both were in excess of 75 offices (combination of cubicles and private offices)
• Both had been purchased within the last five to seven years by Fortune 1000 corporations
• Both were located in the same East Bay city (in fact literally across the street from each other)
• Both were being liquidated due to corporate "consolidation"

These inventories were a sharp departure from the mortgage and residential real estate left-overs that have been filling up the local landfills for the past eight years. Interesting that everyone expects there to be an abundance of used office furniture available right now, but the fact is that the Bay Area in general, and the East Bay in particular ran on mortgage and residential real estate after the Dot-Com bust. These industries in general bought the cheapest products available, so there simply hasn't been a consistent supply of quality used office furniture since late 2004.

Now I'm wondering if all that is about to change...The companies that called me in to review their inventories are not distressed, they appear to be going through an orderly "wind-down" of these particular sites, which is clearly tied to their lease expiration. The products were all A-Grade, both in terms of design and the way the offices were planned. I'm thinking that we may see a rise in the quality and quantity of available used office furniture in the Bay Area, as we see the leases signed by large users in the 2000 to 2005 era expire.

More about → How Lease Expirations are Impacting Used Office Furniture Supply...

Waiting for the Stimulus

I have never seen the play Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, but I imagine that Beckett would greatly appreciate the experience many of us in the commercial interiors industry are going through as we wait for the Federal Stimulus money to hit.

If you google Federal Stimulus you will find 28,100,000 entries, which is a bit overwhelming for those of us simply looking to get a small bite of the apple. Since I've had a little more time on my hands lately, I'll share some of what I've found while "waiting" for the Stimulus.

1) As of today (6/5/2009), the money is just beginning to flow to the local level. I have verified this ancecdotally with some of my local and state clients who expect funding within the next 15 to 30 days.

2) Look at: Recovery.gov which gives the macro view of where the money is going.

3) Look at: Recovery.ca.gov for what California is doing (within this site is very cool map that details by county or congressional district where money is allocated).

4) Local county and city websites all detail specifically what they are "waiting" on in relation to stimulus dollars.

I personally believe that at least some of the new "goals" for government transperency are being met. It took a little effort, but the information on where the federal dollars are heading is available.

In the meantime we wait...and wait... and wait...

More about → Waiting for the Stimulus