Here at Urban Office we are proud to announce that have recently joined the 900,000+ businesses & households around Australia, that have made the switch to GreenPower.

"Around 90% of electricity used in Australia is still generated from the buring of fossil fuels such as coal over over 34% of Australia's emissions come from electricity generation.  This makes the electricity sector the biggest single contributor to Australia's greenhouse emissions.

- reducing your household greenhouse emissions by around 50% by switching to 100% GreenPower 

- driving demand for renewable energy, helping it to compete with polluting coal and gas based generation

- reduce water consumption as renewable energy generators use much less water than coal and gas powered stations"

 

For more information, please visit www.greenpower.gov.au

The Sooner We Get Involved, The More You Save.

Are you sure you're not going to discover any nasty suprises after you've signed the lease? 

Many of our clients have us attend the office tenancy they inspect before they start negotiations. After all it makes good business sense - you get a professionals advice when you buy a house don't you? Making sure that you understand the situation and costs for each office tenancy is critical in your financial assessment.

Here's an example of how you can get caught out. We recently visited a tenancy that our client had already committed to. Unfortunately the previous tenant had put a coat of paint over the grid ceiling to "freshen it up", effectively ruining it. The paint sealed up each ceiling tile making it impossible to access the ceiling for lighting, data or AC changes without leaving a torn up mess overhead. The cost to replace the whole suspended ceiling was $12,000 to which the landlord contributed nothing. Its an expensive lesson and we took no pleasure in advising our client of this unexpected and costly discovery.

It's usually changes to services (such as as plumbing, electrical, and air conditioning) that contain the suprises in the fitout costs and unfortunately these are all hidden behind walls and ceilings. Having an experienced fitout builder on hand to assess the tenancy with you could both save you money and give you the information you need to run a robust assessment on comparative tenancies. The best way to start this process is for us to meet with you and your team to fully understand your needs in relation to a new or refurbished office.  So how do we get this process started?

1. Call us if you are moving in the next 6-12 months and plan a meeting
2. We will help you develop a space brief for your leasing agent
3. Have us attend inspections on the tenancies you feel work for you best

Together we are sure that we can run an assessment on your prospective tenancies that will ensure the optimum environment for your business. In the meantime why not download the Client Tools from our website and start planning for your office move or refurbishment.  Its never too early!

I don't like ping pong, it frustrates me......you know, back and forth, back and forth....

We recently had a client referred to us who was in his own words "well into the process" of having his office fitout planned. Because it was a referral we offered our services anyway and suggested that we should get together to see what they wanted in  their new office and whether we could at least provide some office space planning or services advice. As it turned out, this client was well into the traditional fitout ping-pong match, designers turn......builders turn....back again. Six weeks and no real progress. Two weeks after we met this client we had an approved design, full building works, loose furniture proposal and program in front of them for approval. No more ping pong. When you are paying rent on two offices, six weeks is long time...

Because we are the designer, the licensed builder and also the office furniture distributor we are able to conquer all aspects of the fitout in-house, without limbo periods where we are "standing by" or "waiting on a reply". If we want a reply we get up from our desk and walk accross the room. It does mean that we have to make a high level of commitment to each client, but in our experience it pays off for both our team and client. We still need to compete on price, no suprises there. Paying rent on two properties while you watch ping pong can hurt, especially when what you need is to just keep your business running. Why not use a design and construct solution, get your business up and running sooner and avoid the traditional ping-pong match.