Negotiating with the GSA-Consultants

The ITC office building in Guam, (www.itcguam.net), has gotten a great deal of attention from the U.S. Government lately. As you may have seen in my profile, I'm the president of Fujita Property Guam, the company that owns and manages this 210,000 square foot office building. We are currently in various stages of negotiations with several U.S. Government tenants. As you may know, the job of negotiating leases on behalf of the Government belongs to the General Services Administration, (GSA).

Candidly I was shocked when I received the GSA's version of a request for proposal/solicitation. The document was over 100 pages. It was overwhelming to say the least. In addition to the volume of the solicitation, it required a great deal of attention to detail. Landlords are required to respond to a number of requests, surveys and questions. A potential property can be disqualified if just one error is made in response to the GSA’s solicitation. This is just the start of the process of leasing space to the Federal Government. If our building is selected, we will begin the process of negotiating the lease document and constructing the tenant improvements. I have been told that neither is easy because of the difficult requirements set forth by the GSA.  

Because of the importance of these transactions, I sought out a consultant that could provide guidance from start to finish. As it turns out, two former GSA employees have started a company that provides such consultation. It is called Unified Interest (www.unifiedinterest.com). They offer a comprehensive set of consulting services for dealing with the GSA.

Considering that the U.S. Government is expanding quite rapidly, the likelihood of leasing space to them is greater now than ever. Landlords, and brokers for that matter, should seriously consider utilizing the services of expert consultants to help them through the rigorous process of completing a lease transaction with the U.S. Government. Here's a link to an interesting article relating to GSA leasing. www.ccim.com/cire-magazine/articles/gsa-way