Challenge
PolyOne, a global provider of specialized polymer materials and solutions, had recently acquired a new company and needed to decide whether or not to expand their 85,000 square foot leased R&D/production facility to accommodate planned consolidations and growth. Allegro was tasked with conducting market research and a cost-benefit analysis to compare an expansion with market alternatives including the full relocation of all facilities, lease extensions, and a partial consolidation.
Strict zoning requirements, unique capital outlay needs, and a data center located in one of the facilities were some of the challenges and complexities involved in the consolidation. Specific to the data center, the technical challenge and cost of immediately closing it in conjunction with the consolidation of all three facilities was unacceptable to the client, so Allegro was tasked with coming up with a creative and cost-effective solution to minimize impact.
Solution
Allegro acted as PolyOne’s real estate project manager to help them through the evaluation and decision-making process, ultimately leading them to conclude that, if structured correctly, an expansion of their currently leased 85,000 square foot space would be a cost-effective consolidation solution.
Allegro worked with the landlord to restructure the current lease and finance the construction, which was a complex deal. Allegro engaged a construction rep and oversaw the necessary architectural planning and estimating in order to satisfy the requirements of the client, the landlord, and the landlord’s lenders.
To minimize the potential impact of closing the data center, Allegro leased the facility containing the data center to a new tenant who subleased part of the space back to PolyOne while construction was taking place. This avoided excessive costs for an early data center consolidation and more importantly, allowed a smooth consolidation of the center’s operations on their preferred timeline rather than a rushed timeline dictated by lease expirations.
Allegro was able to seamlessly lead PolyOne through this complicated transaction, managing multiple parties, while ensuring all timelines, capital outlay, and budgetary constraints were met. The end result was a 15,000 square foot, two-story building expansion as well as extensive interior renovations that enabled PolyOne to consolidate employees under one roof and develop an Innovation Center that boasts state-of-the-art research and development capabilities.
