Verizon Reimagines Corporate Real Estate

In late October 2015 James Tousignant, Director of Transactions and Real Estate Development for Verizon Global Real Estate, was sitting in his office at Verizon's headquarters in Basking Ridge, NJ' a sprawling 1.4 MM square foot megaplex of 80's construction. The compound was made up of nine building wings and a central core to serve food to over 5,000 employees each day. As he looked out his office window he pondered what he should do. Verizon had spent significant resources and energy developing their campus master plan and Verizon's new way to work within them, but had overlooked a large share of the administrative portfolio (small offices under 50K square feet) which made up two-thirds of Verizon's portfolio by count, housed over 8,500 employees, and represented $62 million in annual operating cost. The next morning Tousignant would present a plan to John Vasquez, Verizon's Global Head of Real Estate, that should solve the problems with the small office portfolio as well as align the portfolio with the greater enterprise's strategic goals. Tousignant wondered if he should move forward with the plan or reconsider if the risks outweigh the benefits. Tousignant knew that if he did, the strategy would mean a strong departure from traditional corporate real estate. He would spend the rest of the night carefully reviewing the strategy, implementation, and of course the benefits, risks, and alternatives. It would be a night of Keurig and energy bars.