Maximizing investments in people, capital, and facilities.

In today’s competitive landscape, the location of a facility – and the level of incentives secured – can have a profound impact on the bottom line. As thousands of jurisdictions and elected officials around the world aggressively compete for new jobs and investment dollars, it is more important (and more difficult) than ever for corporate decision-makers to determine the true value of incentive packages. At the same time, actually collecting on the promises made over a multi-year project can be an even more daunting task.

TMO Consulting’s Corporate Real Estate Advisory team has decades of experience negotiating and securing some of the largest incentives packages ever offered in North America. TMO Consulting has earned a credible reputation with senior government officials based on our deep experience and long track record of advising companies with site selection and corporate relocations.  This allows us to provide our clients with the strongest incentive results.

Our team has diversified industry experience working on major projects ranging from locating new corporate headquarters, advising on back office relocations and renewals, and finding new greenfield sites for major manufacturing facilities.  Our political, geographic, and technical tax knowledge of the incentives programs, combined with our relationships with key political players provides our clients with a distinct competitive advantage.

Our methodology is customized to be project specific and is designed to identify, maximize, and secure usable tax and business incentives.  Most importantly, our 100% dedication to the incentives compliance process ensures that every dollar awarded is actually collected.

Trigger Events: A Checklist

​Site Selection & Incentives

• Lease Renewal – 50,000 square feet or more
• ​Relocations – Movement of entire facilities or departments
• Job Creation, Retention or Consolidations – 25 people or more
• Capital Investment – $5 million or more
• Training – $1 million or more
• R&D – $1 million or more
• M&A – Activities of any type

Driving value throughout a complicated process.

TMO Consulting’s comprehensive construction oversight services combine our forensic capabilities with architectural design and project management professionals. We take a proactive approach throughout every phase of construction in order to keep costs – and problems – under control.

Establishing a construction audit team at the beginning of a project will stem the seemingly unavoidable problems commonly associated with the construction process, saving time and money. Even if a project has already commenced, we can still customize our approach to meet our client’s needs. In fact, most construction contracts require the vendor to make their books available for audit for up to three years after the project is complete.

Our professionals work to assess potential savings through a construction audit in the following areas:

• The Lease – Our team will assist in negotiating and reviewing the lease and comparing it against construction costs to make sure items the landlord is responsible for are not inadvertently being paid by our client. A thorough knowledge of leases and construction costs is critical to having the project completed at the lease cost.

• Professional Contracts – Our practices assess all professional service contracts including project management, design, and construction management for clarity and market value pricing.  Forensic audits are performed throughout the project to verify time charges, billing rates and materials.

• Design Drawings – With the innumerable decisions required of each project, it is not uncommon for critical information to be missing.  Our rigorous review of design drawings identify errors and omissions and confirm clarity, completeness and coordination between the architecture, construction, and engineering professionals.  This review is crucial to a project’s success in reducing wasted time and unnecessary expense by anticipating and resolving problems before they happen.

• Change Orders – The common perception is for construction managers and subcontractors to make up for profits lost during the bid phase with change orders.  Being on site and entrenched, they now have negotiating leverage.  TMO Consulting levels the field by stress testing every change order, which includes screening for cost, value, accuracy, and redundancy to the base contract.  The validity and charge for a change order is confirmed in the field and documented before we recommend approvals. In many cases we are able to negotiate reduced costs to the change orders, and in turn, the project.

• Landlord Charges for Services – During construction, the landlord will bill a tenant directly for a variety of expenses including utilities, freight elevator and janitorial services.  These charges may be addressed as part of the tenant improvement clause of the lease, so it is important to make sure these expenses are not included in the operating expense escalation as well, and that the rate does not include any hidden premiums.

Identifying opportunities, driving value.

TMO Consulting’s Corporate Real Estate Advisory Services practice has a dedicated group of highly experienced professionals, bringing a unique level of enthusiasm, dedication, and creative thinking to each project. Our clients, including many of the most prestigious law firms and investment banks, as well as dozens of Fortune 500 corporations, have reaped the benefits of our non-confrontational, yet persuasive approach.

For most companies, real estate occupancy and facility costs are typically some of the largest recurring expenditures. Assessing the accuracy of these charges and identifying opportunities for savings is essential. TMO Consulting’s professionals deliver deeper, more thorough audits, and are able to find more ways to obtain the greatest refund possible. Our process is designed to minimize conflicts and to maintain a positive relationship between landlords and tenants. Our service approach proactively ensures that our clients’ needs are fully satisfied and accommodated.

As a major accounting firm with a dedicated practice group serving the corporate real estate community, TMO Consulting draws on a 20-year history of uncovering property operating expenses and real estate tax billings, as well as utility and overtime HVAC miscalculations. With in-house engineering experience, we are uniquely positioned to address complicated utility issues involving the lease, financial calculations, and engineering concepts.

Potential saving through a lease audit include:   

• Operating/CAM Expenses
• Real Estate Taxes
• Utilities
  • Submetered Electric
  • Common Area Electric/Steam
• Overtime Services
  • HVAC
  • Condensor/Chilled Water
  • Freight
  • Janitorial
  • Engineers
• Base Rent
• Pro Rata Share

Cleaning up your janitorial charges.

Supplemental cleaning charges consist of additional cleaning services beyond standard building services. Depending on the tenant needs, these charges can range from thousands to millions of dollars. TMO Consulting’s highly experienced professionals have negotiated reductions to supplemental cleaning charges by as much as 50%.

Potential savings through a janitorial audit include:

• Workloading – Workloading is a systematic approach to determine the total hours required to clean a facility. By effectively estimating how much a worker can accomplish in a specified time period, TMO Consulting is often able to find numerous opportunities to both increase efficiency and lower costs.
• Labor and Related Costs – After establishing the time required for each task, it is necessary to determine the unit price for labor and related costs. Once the length and hourly rate have been calculated, the result is compared to the amount quoted by the cleaning contractor for each service provided to determine the potential savings.
• Lease Specifications – It is not uncommon for a cleaning contractor to attempt to sell a tenant a service which the contractor is already required to provide pursuant to the base building cleaning specifications of the tenant’s lease.
• Frequency of Services – It is sometimes difficult for a tenant to gauge how often a particular service may be necessary (e.g. marble and tile maintenance, vacuuming). Frequency of service is affected by the type of cleaning required, area traffic, and the level of cleanliness desired to suit each tenants’ needs.