The business needs to be closer to the customer. Take a good look at this request.  In trucking if a plant moves it is cheaper to have a terminal close by for just in time delivery.  For office space it is a little more subjective.  Who are your customers?   My best client is located a thousand miles away from my office. We talk most every day so being close wouldn’t really change much.  There are some offices located just a bit too far from a metropolitan area. In those cases I would agree to move closer to the rest of society. Before the economy got so soft it was difficult to find people willing to drive to scenic, rural destinations but everyone wants to save on gas when it spikes over $3 a gallon.

. The landlord won’t renew my lease. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this.  Sometimes the landlord won’t renew the lease because the operations manager told the landlord the corporation won’t renew.  Corporations should be looking at the market where a lease is about to expire at least nine months out.  Every office lease should be shopped around no matter what.  That is the only way to make sure the decision to renew or relocate is an informed decision.  It also creates leverage.

There is a security or health risk.  Always protect your staff.  Perform due diligence to determine if a security or health risk exists.  Relocating may not be the only option.  Perhaps exterior lights, security guards or alarms systems can be beefed up.  Contact the landlord-they will often work hard to solve these types of issues.  They don’t want trouble any more than anyone else. It is unfortunate but many people will use any plausible excuse they can think of to justify relocation.  Stories can be exaggerated.  Having spent 15 years in corporate real estate before becoming a broker I found that four times out of five it is simply an excuse to relocate.  Survey your staff, hold brainstorming meetings to see how to make the present space more comfortable before hiring the moving van.

The space is too small.  This could mean one of three things.  The person running the office wants everyone to have big offices or cubicles. Or the space really is too small, especially now that the company is staffing up.   Or third, the person running the operation doesn’t live in the area and can’t see how cramped people are in their cubes, like an episode from the movie “Office Space.”

The best solution is to allow 200 square feet per person.  So if you have 15 people and the office is 2,500 square feet, then it is probably too small.  However if the space is 4,000 square feet a look at the floor plan and see if some walls can be moved around the create space.

You often don’t have to leave to be happy. But you do have to leave your comfort zone, the assurance that everything is alright and take a look at how to use people and space more effectively.