At William B. Meyer Inc., Ted Kennedy, vice president of sales and marketing, pointed out what relocation trends the Stratford-based specialized relocation, transportation, storage and logistics services company is noticing.
Q: Are foreclosures helping your business and what commercial relocation trends have you seen as a result of the economic downturn?
Kennedy: “While the current economy is driving the number of national foreclosures to historic highs, William B. Meyer Inc. has not experienced a correlation in its volume of residential moves. However, regarding moves that originate in our regional footprint, the New York to Boston corridor, we have seen a slight decline in the number of overall residential projects. Both individual homeowners and executive relocations for corporations have slowed relative to the general economy.
“United Van Lines L.L.C.”™s 2008 migration study showed that 55.1 percent of residential projects in New York and 53.5 percent of those in Connecticut were outbound moves. However, this is not a new phenomenon. New York has been a predominantly outbound state since 1977 and Connecticut attained the same status in 2003.
“Interestingly, when it comes to office moves, corporations are now more inclined to retrofit or consolidate space to accommodate the changing environment. The economic shift has created a need for different space utilization. Some corporations are consolidating offices into a singular larger space, while others are downsizing. Of note, we are also receiving more inquires through our records management services. “Companies that had been storing records onsite now realize the benefit to moving them to our records management facility thus freeing up much pricier office space. More clients are seeking to create space by recycling, remarketing and storing technology assets offsite through our logistics services.
“We recently acquired PC Worldwide in Manchester. This now gives us the capability to provide these services as a unique offering when coupled with office relocation projects. We have found that the deployment or retirement of computer equipment, its inventory management and the managing of lease returns for corporate technology assets is a growing residual demand of office moving services.”
The company”™s Web site is www.williambmeyer.com.
