December 13, 2016 | Liz Austin

With a little expert guidance, redesigning a dilapidated commercial lot into your dream workspace may be easier than you think.

You know what they say — one company’s trash is another company’s high-impact pet project. Whereas some developers might view abandoned properties as a lost cause, Green Street sees them as prime sites for redevelopment. That’s why many of our award-winning, LEED-certified designs preserve as much of the original structure as possible. With the right updates, every dilapidated warehouse represents a golden opportunity for a new business to thrive.

Green Street’s success with rehabbing old commercial properties is due in part to our multifaceted business approach. With experts in development, real estate, consulting, and construction on retainer, we deploy a holistic, well-rounded strategy at every step in the development process.

Transforming 2351 Market Street

Our recently completed project at 2351 Market represents the possibilities of transforming a vacant commercial property into a vibrant new office space. Located in what was formerly a Wells Fargo building, Green Street’s newest tech-enabled office space is a testament to the abundant potential of reviving and reinventing a building, rather than tearing it down and starting from scratch.

Of course, redeveloping 2351 Market posed some unique design challenges. The property, at 85,000 square feet, was certainly large enough to house several partnering companies; but the floor plan would need to be reconfigured before it could be considered move-in ready for commercial tenants.

After all, scaling a company is difficult no matter what, and without the right infrastructure, it’s nearly impossible. Luckily, with a little construction and a lot of collaboration, Green Street was able to envision and implement a new floor plan which reflected the synergistic approach to business on which we pride ourselves.

Finding New Ways to Use The Space

Why didn’t we simply start from scratch at a new site when we realized the floor plan for our project needed to be totally reimagined? Because no matter how you spin it, rehabbing an old lot is still easier (and faster!) than breaking ground on a new one. The building had a solid foundation and good visibility — our job was to make the floorplan align with our modern workspace’s needs.

Indeed, the infrastructural frameworks of existing structures often offer significant benefits to Green Street’s skilled re-development team. In the case of 2351 Market, for instance, the companies that had resided there previously had been relatively high-tech. As such, we were able to maximize the technological capabilities of the space, from Wifi access to SSAE 16 data center rack space.

Finding the Right Partner

When Green Street realized we’d hit the jackpot tech-wise, we knew we needed to find the right partner to share this incredible space with. Green Street’s newly redesigned space perfectly accommodated Avatara’s reliance on cloud computing, expanding the possibilities of their tech-enabled business practices. As Ben Scully, Avatara’s VP of Sales and Marketing, points out, Green Street provided a sort of “second stage” for their business, providing them with the space they needed to truly branch out.

Here at Green Street, we practice what we preach when it comes to redesigning vacant properties — our HQ is also located in a building we redesigned! Whatever the project, it’s important to redesign the site with a particular business’ goals in mind. It all comes down to this: the better a building can be reconfigured to a company’s specific needs, the more their business — and yours — will thrive.

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