NorthEast Utilities

Situation
This $4B multi-state utility company had a substantial facility and land portfolio including over 30,000 plus acres of land and 85 facilities. The company had undergone several acquisitions over the past two decades that resulted in an ineffective and underleveraged Shared Services function.  There were multiple real estate organizations across four operating units. The company wanted to centralize Corporate Property Management, its real estate department, to drive shareholder value through disposals, reduction of operating and maintenance costs, rezoning and land management due to 1) scattered property data across multiple sources and 2) lack of collaboration and buy-in across the organization. The employee population included may union employees.

Resolution
Brown Real Estate Advisors and its partner established an integrated and collaborative team to provide input into both real estate and facilities challenges. We conducted multiple interviews with stakeholders and reviewed data to gain a full understanding of the utility’s current state in respect to: goals and objectives; organization; processes, hard asset inventory; regulatory and public relations implications. We conducted visioning sessions to identify an exhaustive list of initiatives and help develop a real estate strategy that would allow the company to shift its real estate from the perception that it is a fixed cost to a “value creator.”

Our recommendations and impact included: aggregating goals and objectives from decentralized real estate departments to create a cohesive, strategic message that would be embraced at the company’s executive level; analyzed current state portfolio against various metrics and segments; assessed current issues and provided corresponding opportunities for both real estate and facilities; developed a systematic approach to identify opportunities and quantify financial benefit from portfolio optimization; identified “quick wins;” developed a comprehensive long term plan focused on building and demonstrating value to the company.