It took a lot of two-coffee meetings in the networking world of commercial real estate to get Patti Bancone the client list she has today.
From a desk on the second-floor landing of her family”™s North Castle home, Bancone runs her two-employee business, Arcom Space Planning L.L.C. Her one employee, an interior designer, also works remotely from her own home. The buildings whose spaces they custom-design, and whose construction build-out and renovation costs Bancone often estimates and budgets, range from Fairfield County in Connecticut to the Bronx and Queens.
“At first I thought it was going to be difficult just meeting clients and missing the socialization of the office,” said Bancone, for whom casual work attire is a pair of pajamas. “But everything is done remotely now. Because of technology you can do a lot from home.”
At home and in those coffee-fueled meetings, it”™s Bancone”™s job to “think inside the box” ”“ but creatively ”“ and plan and design office and retail space, lobbies, corridors and elevator boxes for landlords, commercial brokers, office designers, builders, property managers and tenants.
Increasingly, she uses 3D renderings and animation for concept plans to help brokers and landlords better present and sell space to companies looking to lease. “The way the Internet works now, it”™s kind of like this instant gratification,” she said.
“It”™s a good selling tool,” said Bancone, who updated her business hardware and software this year to keep up with the latest visual trends in marketing office space. “If they can visualize what this looks like (when furnished and occupied) ahead of time, it just helps the process along, it helps decision-making.”
“A lot of it is helping the landlords get these tenants,” she said. Often, though, leasing prospects “decide to do something else,” and Bancone”™s indispensable but often overlooked services end prematurely.
A graduate of the New York School of Interior Design, Bancone worked for architectural firms on the commercial side early in her career. She left her career track for seven years to raise her children, but did some residential architectural work, including the design of interior and exterior renovations to her suburban home.
About eight years ago, she returned to work in office space planning and project management for a leading Westchester County office landlord and building manager, Reckson Associates Realty Corp. “I really started to understand the landlord side, the cost-effective side of architecture.”
After Reckson was acquired by SL Green Realty Corp., Bancone briefly worked for Reckson”™s successor on the Platinum Mile, RexCorp Realty, before deciding to start her own business.
“I needed to have some sort of angle to get out there.” She emphasized turnaround time, offering to have draft floor plans delivered within 24 to 48 hours to brokers and building owners. “There”™s a lot of inventory out there, and you want to be responsive” to clients”™ needs by setting and meeting deadlines, she said.
“When I started, it was all about landlords because that”™s where the volume was. We”™re getting tenant work now because we”™re getting into interior design. Now I”™m looking to get the tenants.”
From her Westchester base, Bancone”™s expanding business has moved north up I-95 into Connecticut and office spaces in Norwalk and Stamford. She has done work for Abbey Road Advisors L.L.C., the private real estate investment firm in Westport, and for Edgewood Capital Advisors L.L.C., the real estate investment company based in Southport. In Stamford, she is planning expanded retail and headquarters space for Juliska, the artisanal glassware and home design company.
Bancone”™s certified woman-owned enterprise also is expanding southward into New York City. She has designed a law firm office at Hutchinson Metro Center, the Bronx trophy property of Simone Development Cos., formerly based in New Rochelle.
In Long Island City, Queens, Bancone was referred by a longtime friend to a renovations project at Citylights, a 42-story, 522-unit co-op apartment building. Competing against much larger and more impersonal companies, she was hired to design corridor and management office renovations and will have more work renovating lobbies and elevators there. Lobby and corridor improvements work in high-end buildings such as Citylights “is really what we focus on,” she said.
The New York City real estate market shows promise for her business. “If I can find another niche, I”™ll grab it.”
“There are a lot of people out there looking for work and fighting for projects.” Clients, she said, “are now looking for service.” Bancone”™s personal service includes consulting on green building design and construction.
Returning to the region”™s commercial real estate market eight years ago, “It was clearly more active back then. Now there”™s work, but it”™s harder to find. You”™ve got to work harder to find the work.”
