The Sundance Company

May 23, 2014March 31, 2014 sundancecompany Boise Commercial Real Estate, Boise Commercial Real Estate Development, Boise Industrial Space, boise valley commercial real estate, Meridian Commercial Real Estate, meridian idaho, Meridian Industrial Space, The Sundance Company

Taylor West: Boise Valley Commercial Real Estate for Lease

The Sundance Company, a trusted and knowledgeable commercial real estate leader in the Boise Valley since 1976, is pleased to announce that the Taylor West Industrial Park building has space available for lease.

Located in Meridian, Idaho, the two-building industrial complex features 68,829 square feet of commercial real estate space, and is ideally situated near two main thoroughfares in Meridian. Currently, there are three spaces available with 37,983 square feet available. Other features of Taylor West Industrial Park include: separate tenant entrances, easy access to Interstate 84, spaces offer office, showroom, R&D or industrial suites, ample truck turning radius for all sites, dock and drive-in doors, and fenced outside storage yards on-site. At The Sundance Company, we treat every building as if we will own it for life, care for each building like we care for our own homes, and promise unparalleled response and follow through, which results in high tenant satisfaction and long-term comfort, cost-savings and occupancy.

Site Area: Approximately 4.25 acres, 450 feet fronting W. Taylor Avenue
Zoning: C-G
Year Built: Built in two phases, 1990 & 1995
Number of Floors: Single, Unit 100 provides additional second floor office space
Parking: 91 parking stalls “in common” with all tenants
Construction: Concrete tilt-up Roof: Flat roof with metal truss
HVAC: Office: Rooftop package HVAC with gas forced air heating and forced air electric air conditioning
Warehouse: Ceiling mounted gas space heaters
Ceiling: Warehouse clear height East 19’, West 16’ (bottom of truss) Floor: 6” reinforced concrete slab Warehouse
Doors: Drive-in doors and dock doors on-site. Excellent ingress/egress and turning radius for trucks and trailers Power: 120/20/ 3ph/ 4wire/ 200amps
Life Safety: Wet System (hydraulic system)
Special: Fenced yards available on-site

About The Sundance Company
Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs in Boise, Meridian, Nampa, and the greater Treasure Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.5 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime locations throughout the Boise Valley. More information available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.

May 15, 2014March 31, 2014 sundancecompany business information, commercial real estate, Commercial real estate news, office productivity, office space tips, The Sundance Company

The Right Office Building For Any Business

When it comes to office buildings, you generally get what you pay for, but first you need to know what you want. Colliers International Workplace Strategist David McEwen shares his guide to selecting the office building right for your business.

Defining your requirements starts with a solid understanding of your business strategy and a well formed workplace strategy, identifying who is going to occupy the building and how they will use it. Prioritizing your requirements (other than cost and lease terms) can be broken down into these broad categories:

1. Risk Mitigation

What is the risk profile of the business activities to be undertaken?

What is the impact of unexpected loss of power, phones or data circuits?

What is the security profile of the operation? Is it at elevated risk of industrial espionage, theft, hacking / social engineering attempts, or public protest?

Is the building in close proximity to any location specific hazards?

2. Spatial Needs

Will the floor plates, core placement, column grid, ceiling heights and features like internal atria work for your business?

Are there any groups requiring high levels of floor space density such as call centers or clerical processing teams? Or are there areas where typical occupancy may be higher than expected, such as non-territorial environments?

Conversely what’s the expectation for the density of built zones such as personal offices and meeting rooms?

How large are your various teams? How much do their sizes vary and what are their needs for interaction and collaboration?

How long is the facility required and what are the expectations for changes in team sizes, work practices and technology over that period?

3. Building Performance

Will capacity, sustainability (eg. energy and water efficiency) and other characteristics of the various building services including electrical supply, air conditioning plant, telecommunications risers and elevators meet your business needs?

What are the operating hours? Is shift work undertaken? Will the building’s plant be able to service your needs efficiently outside normal business hours?

Is there to be a computer room or data center? Does it host applications or web services used by customers or users in other sites? Does it need to be on site?

Are there any specialist requirements such as labs or clean rooms?

Do you require particular delivery access or garaging? Do you have areas requiring high floor loading?

4. Amenity

Is the building located close to a public transport hub? If not, is adequate car parking available?

Are there end of trip facilities like secure bicycle parking, shower and locker services to support employees’ lifestyle choices?

Does it provide access to cafés, banking facilities, other retail, gyms and child care facilities nearby?

5. Cosmetic appeal

Will appearance and fit out standards for the building exterior, lobbies, lifts, bathrooms, and the floor and ceiling finishes within the proposed tenancy area align with your brand?

What types of employees are you trying to attract? What will they look for in a building?

What is the profile of visitors or clients attending the site? What are their expectations? Are signage rights important?

Armed with this information you can start to prepare your property brief and prioritize your requirements. In practice it’s a complex juggling act with many traps for the unwary. At the outset, it is useful to assemble a team of internal and external specialists headed by an experienced Project Director, typically covering the following disciplines:

While this sounds like a long list, a good Project Director will help ensure timely and efficient inputs from the necessary experts to develop the right strategy and property brief, and provide effective due diligence on short listed sites.

The story was originally published on Colliers International.

About The Sundance Company
Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs throughout the Boise Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.5 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime locations in the Boise metropolitan area. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.

May 8, 2014March 31, 2014 sundancecompany The Sundance Company

The Top of America: The View From 1 World Trade Center

For years after the 9/11 attacks, nearly all the activity at Ground Zero was downward—digging through the piles of debris, excavating a vast pit to restore the ruined transit lines, preparing the foundations for the new buildings that would emerge there. Even the memorial that opened in 2011 was an exercise in the poetics of descent—two vast cubic voids, each with water cascading down all four sides, carrying grief to some underground resting place.

The memorial has turned out to be a lovely thing, but what the site still needed was something that climbed, something that spoke to the idea that emotional burdens might not only be lowered into the ground but also released into the air. Now we have it: One World Trade Center, the glass-and-steel exclamation point, all 1,776 feet of it, is nearing completion close to where the Twin Towers once stood. No doubt the new building’s official dedication will open the way to a necessary debate over its merits as architecture and urbanism, its turbulent design history and the compromises made over the long years it took to get the thing built. But in one important respect, One World Trade Center has already succeeded. It has reclaimed the sky. And this is the view from there, http://time.com/world-trade-center/

May 1, 2014March 20, 2014 sundancecompany business information, The Sundance Company

What Each Country Leads The World In

April 22, 2014March 20, 2014 sundancecompany business information, The Sundance Company

3 Mistakes to Avoid When Networking

We all know networking has the potential to dramatically enhance our careers; making new connections can introduce us to valuable new information, job opportunities, and more. But despite that fact, many of us are doing it wrong — and I don’t just mean the banal error of trading business cards at a corporate function and not following up properly. Many executives, even when they desperately want to cultivate a new contact, aren’t sure how to get noticed and make the right impression.

I’ve certainly been there. Years ago, I was a speaker at a tech conference — as was a bestselling author. By chance, we met in the speakers lounge and, massively unprepared, I fell back on platitudes. It’s great to meet you! I love your work! I handed him my card. If you’re ever in Boston, it’d be a pleasure to meet up! He hasn’t called, and frankly, I’m not surprised.

We’re all busy, but it’s hard to imagine the volume of requests that well-known leaders receive. Reputation.com founder and fellow HBR blogger Michael Fertik told me he receives anywhere from 500-1000 emails per day, and describes it as “a huge tax on my life.” Wharton professor Adam Grant, who was profiled by the New York Times for his mensch-like habit of doing almost anyone a “five minute favor” was rewarded for his generosity by being inundated with 3500 emails from strangers hitting him up. “I underestimated how many people read the New York Times,” he jokes.

Grant does get back to the people who write him — he even had to hire an assistant to help — but most people at the top don’t have the time management skills (or the desire) to pull that off. If you want to network successfully with high-level professionals, you have to inspire them to want to connect with you. Through hard-won experience, I’ve learned some of the key mistakes aspiring networkers make in their quest to build relationships, and how to avoid them.

Misunderstanding the pecking order. The “rules” for networking with peers are pretty straightforward: follow up promptly, connect with them on LinkedIn, offer to buy them coffee or lunch. I’ve had great success with this when reaching out to people I had an equal connection to: we’re both bloggers for the same publication, or serve on a charity committee together, for example. People want to congregate with their peers to trade ideas and experiences; your similarity alone is enough reason for them to want to meet you.

But the harsh truth is those rules don’t work for people who are above you in status. The bestselling author at the tech conference had no idea who I was, and no reason to. My book hadn’t yet been released, and his had sold hundreds of thousands of copies; he was keynoting the entire conference, and I was running a much smaller concurrent session. We make mistakes when we fail to grasp the power dynamics of a situation. It would be nice if Richard Branson or Bill Gates wanted to hang out with me “just because,” but that’s unlikely. If I’m going to connect with someone far better known than I am, I need to give them a very good reason.

Asking to receive before you give. You may have plenty of time to have coffee with strangers or offer them advice. Someone who receives 1000 emails a day does not. Asking for their time, in and of itself, is an imposition unless you can offer them some benefit upfront. Canadian social media consultant Debbie Horovitch managed to build relationships with business celebrities like Guy Kawasaki and Mike Michalowicz by inviting them to be interviewed for her series of Google+ Hangouts focused on how to become a business author. Instead of asking them for “an hour of their time” to get advice on writing a book, she exposed them to a broader audience and created content that’s permanently available online.

Failing to specifically state your value proposition. Top professionals don’t have time to weed through all the requests they get to figure out which are dross and which are gold. You have to be very explicit, very quickly, about how you can help. My incredibly weak “Let’s meet up in Boston!” isn’t going to cut it. Instead, you need to show you’re familiar with the person’s work and have thought carefully about how you can help them, not the other way around. Tim Ferriss of The 4-Hour Workweek fame blogs about how his former intern Charlie Hoehn won him over with a detailed pitch, including Charlie’s self-created job description touting his ability to help create a promotional video for Ferriss and an online “micro-network” for fans of his books.

Networking is possibly the most valuable professional activity we can undertake. But too often, we’re inadvertently sabotaging our own best efforts by misreading power dynamics, failing to give first, and not making our value proposition clear. Fixing those crucial flaws can help us connect with the people we want and need to meet to develop our careers.

The story was originally published on the HBR Blog Network.

April 15, 2014March 20, 2014 sundancecompany office productivity, office space tips, The Sundance Company

Sitting All Day? 6 Easy Ways to Get Healthy at Work

For most office employees, working at a desk for eight or more hours a day is unavoidable. But as many Americans now know, spending all that time glued to your seat can really take a toll on your physical and mental health.

“In an office environment, you spend most of your working hours sitting in meetings or in front of a computer screen,” said Jamie Russo, chief of work and wellness at co-working office space Enerspace. “Aside from the physical hazards of sitting — such as the increased risks of heart disease, diabetes and cancer — there’s a productivity benefit to giving yourself a mental break. It’s so important to unchain yourself from your desk and give your body and mind a chance to recover.”

Encouraging a culture of wellness in the office begins with its leaders, said Russo. “Walking the walk” at work each day (figuratively and literally) can inspire your employees to do the same.

“Leaders should take walks around the office, make use of the company gym and eat lunch in the cafeteria rather than at a desk,” Russo advised. “A company may spend money on employee wellness programs, but if its leadership isn’t sending the message that it’s OK to take a gym break or have a walking meeting, then it’s wasted money.”

Russo, along with business furniture company turnstone, suggested these six simple ways to start improving your health and wellness at work today:

–– Diversify your posture throughout the day. There are plenty of ways to stay active during the workday and offset some of the damage done by sitting all day. Swap out your regular chair for an active seat like a yoga ball for a few hours, or spend a portion of the day working at a height-adjusted standing desk. You can also walk while you’re taking your next conference call, to give you a physical and mental change of pace.

–– Get up and talk to co-workers. Every few hours, walk around and talk to a different person for 10 to 15 minutes.Not only will these short breaks improve circulation and reduce eyestrain and buildup of muscle tension, but they’ll also help you foster better relationships with employees, and might spark fresh ideas.

–– Purposely leave your brown bag at home. A packed lunch is often healthier and less expensive than take-out alternatives, but once in a while, force yourself to go out and pick up lunch to get away from your desk.

–– Run errands during your workday. If your schedule allows for it, save quick errands — like depositing a check at the bank — for work hours. You’ll get some fresh air and a mental break from the task at hand, and you can cross off the task from your after-work to-do list.

–– Close your eyes and breathe. Meditation is becoming a more popular way to stay focused and reduce stress at work. Sneak in 10 deep breaths while you’re getting your morning coffee or even at your desk when you put the phone down after a call.

The story was originally published on Business News Daily.

April 8, 2014February 22, 2014 sundancecompany business information, commercial real estate, Commercial real estate news, office productivity, The Sundance Company

3 Ways to Maintain Work-Life Balance While Staying Connected

In an increasingly mobile environment with a business clock that runs 24-7, many entrepreneurs use their smartphones and tablets to stay connected to both their customers and business partners no matter where they are.

“A lot of small businesses deal with other small businesses, so it’s important to communicate when it works for both parties,” said Mike Pugh, vice president of marketing at digital business solutions provider j2 Global. “It might be early in the morning, late at night, or on a lunch hour. You need to be able to take a message and access information to keep a deal in motion.”

However, just because you can be reached constantly through your mobile devices doesn’t mean you should be. “You should avoid being available all the time to everyone, or available to no one,” Pugh told Business News Daily. “Use technology to make yourself accessible in the right ways to the right people at the right time.”

Pugh offered the following mobile tech strategies to help people stay accessible while still maintaining their work-life balance:

1) Take your time and single-task. With online faxing and a digitized signature, you can send an important fax from anywhere while you’re doing other things. But when you multitask, you’re far more likely to make errors. Step away from what you’re doing so you can give the business task your undivided attention.

2) Don’t take calls unless it’s quiet. Projecting professionalism and seriousness is just as important as being responsive. Before you take or return an important call from a prospect while you’re out of the office, make sure you’re in a quiet environment first.

3) Find solutions that work on any platform. You need to be able to use whatever device is available to you at the time to conduct your business. The software and programs you choose to run your operations should behave the same way on your phone, tablet and desktop.

The story was originally published on Business News Daily.

April 1, 2014March 20, 2014 sundancecompany Boise Valley, Economy news, Rankings, The Sundance Company

National Rankings for the Boise Valley

The Boise Valley, home of The Sundance Company since 1976, has been recognized in several high-profile publications by ranking the city as one of the best places in the United States to do business and live. Below are some of the recent accolades:

#10 Best Place to Invest in Housing 2014
Forbes | February 2014

Top 24 Best Places to Live & Work 2014
 Sunset Magazine | February 2014

Top 25 Best Places to Retire in 2014
Forbes | January 2014

#12 in Top 100 Places to Live 2014
Livability.com | October 2013

#12 Healthiest State
AmericasHealthRankings.org | December 2013  

#9 Best State for Expected Job Growth
Forbes, September 2013  

#4 Best State for Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneur Magazine, August 2013

March 25, 2014February 8, 2014 sundancecompany business information, The Sundance Company

10 Simple Ways To Cut Business Expenses

There’s no avoiding the fact that running a business costs money. Whether it’s a brick-and-mortar retail store, a service provider, or a small e-commerce company, every startup has its own set of expenses. While you can’t fully eliminate your costs, you can significantly reduce them with a few simple changes to your business operations.

Holly Perez, senior manager of personal finance software company Quicken, shared these 10 cost-cutting solutions to help you reduce your business’s budget:

1. Outsource. Bring in freelancers or contractors for short-term jobs. You won’t have to pay a full-time salary with benefits to employees who you may not need after a project is completed. If a particular temp worker stands out, you may be able to hire them to fill a current or future position, which could help you cut recruiting and training costs.

2. Hire interns. Hiring interns is a win-win situation. Interns get valuable experience, and employers enjoy low-cost labor. However, interns might need extensive training on your software and procedures before they can get to work. Keep this in mind when weighing the costs and benefits of this tactic.

3. Use email whenever possible. When sending simple messages, like greetings to new customers and requests to vendors, do it electronically. Small costs like stamps, envelopes and paper can add up fast, so cutting the little things can make a big difference.

4. Print less. Ink cartridges, paper, file cabinets and storage space are all expenses you can easily limit in the digital age. Store the majority of your documents and data on a hard drive, scanning paper documents if necessary. Be sure to back up all of your files and protect your computers with passwords.

5. Negotiate lower credit card APRs. Many small business owners use credit cards for working capital, minor purchases or travel expenses. If you’re paying a high annual percentage rate, try to negotiate a lower rate with your provider. You can save significant money over the long term.

6. Negotiate lower prices with your suppliers. You shouldn’t just be wrangling better deals from your credit card companies; you should also negotiate with your suppliers. Most suppliers are amenable to the idea of negotiating prices, because they would rather do so than lose a regular customer.

7. Pay invoices early. Many suppliers offer discounts for paying invoices within the first few days of receiving them. If you have the cash, paying early is a great way to build long-lasting relationships with your suppliers.

8. Buy used equipment. With technology constantly improving, you can get big discounts on software and hardware that was recently replaced by a new version. Used equipment can be just as useful as new equipment, but even at a few months old, these products will come at a significantly lower price.

9. Travel less. You can save a lot of time and money by avoiding unnecessary trips. Use online resources like Webex and Skype to conduct meetings with people in multiple locations rather than traveling to visit them in person.

10. Let employees telecommute. If possible, allow your staff to work from home at least one day per week. You’ll see a cost savings on your electricity bill, and you may ultimately be able to relocate to a smaller office.

The story was originally published on Business News Daily.

March 18, 2014February 8, 2014 sundancecompany business information, commercial real estate, Commercial real estate news, Economy news, The Sundance Company

Making Your Business Buzzworthy

An article from the Business News Daily discusses how email marketing used to follow a one-size-fits-all model, but now new technology is giving businesses the chance to take their campaigns to the next level.

Vivek Sharma, co-founder and CEO of email marketing technology provider Movable Ink, said there are numerous new ways businesses can help ensure their emails are not only read, but revisited multiple times.

Originally, email marketing was similar to direct mail in that everyone got the same message, Sharma said. Eventually, email messages could be targeted to different customer segments — for instance, one email could be sent to men, and the other to women.

Sharma said “agile marketing” takes things several steps further. “Agile marketing is actuality-based marketing — meaning, rather than creating a prefabbed message, the message is adapting to you based on when you are [reading it], where you are, what device you are opening it on and even the weather outside,” Sharma said.

To help businesses better understand the capabilities of email marketing, Sharma has compiled a list of 10 ways retailers can use email marketing to generate excitement and boost sales:

Multimedia: Rather than a simple picture, use video and a countdown clock to unveil a new product and create a sense of urgency.
Social media: Use social media to make emails interactive by incorporating real-time tweets and Instagram photos.
Personalize: While some think slapping someone’s name at the top of an email makes it personal, take it even further by personalizing an image with the recipient’s name on it — for example, a piece of jewelry with the person’s name engraved on it.
New deals: To get consumers to revisit the email after they have opened it, use new technology that allows for the email to be updated with new deals every hour.
Shipping: Include real-time shipping-status information in purchase confirmation emails.
Updated locations: Use geo-targeting to show nearby store locations and the hours when each of those stores is open.
New products: Change offers that are promoted based on each shopper’s location. For example, a ticket broker could change the concerts or sporting events it promotes in an email based on each consumer’s location.
Bar codes: Use bar codes in mobile emails to drive sales by letting consumers have their email scanned straight from their mobile device for an in-store discount.
Best sellers: For businesses with fast-moving products on their home page, use new tools that allow the emails to always show the most up-to-date best-selling products. It ensures the emails never go stale.
Mobile friendly: Optimize emails for mobile devices — for instance, include a “click to call” button for customers who want to make a purchase or speak to a customer representative.

Sharma said email marketing makes the most sense for retailers because it has the largest return on their investment. He points to past research that shows that the return on investment for email marketing is $29 for every $1 spent.

“Dollar for dollar, out of all of the digital channels available to retailers, email simply performs the best,” Sharma said. “It is incredibly effective.”