• The Equity Office Customer Advisory Board provides the company with direct continuing feedback from customers about a very broad range of issues, services and management policies. Among other things, board comments were responsible for creation of a new balanced lease form written in plain English.
  • The Equity Office information network spans six regions and encompasses nearly 1,300 property and regional employees who interact with customers daily, providing detailed information that is the foundation for better-informed decisions.

  • Equity Office uses sophisticated market research techniques to identify what customers want and how well its buildings are performing. More than 3,350 tenants responded in detail to the company's 1998 Customer Survey.


 
There's more to success in real estate than buying buildings. Equity Office has developed a continuous flow of timely information that gives it a proven edge in timing market turns and anticipating customer needs.

Take the 1996 acquisition of Two California Plaza, a 52-story, 1.3-million-square-foot landmark in the prestigious Bunker Hill section of downtown Los Angeles. Equity Office anticipated the recovery of the downtown Los Angeles office market from the severe recession of the early 1990s. And because of its strong local knowledge, Equity Office believed it could fill the more than 400,000 square feet in "Two Cal" due to be vacated by its biggest tenant. Today, Two California Plaza is a cornerstone of Equity Office's Los Angeles portfolio.

With good area relationships, Equity Office was able to make an early presentation to potential tenant Deloitte & Touche, the accounting and consulting firm, which wanted to consolidate its southern California operations.

To demonstrate advanced technology, Equity Office offered a tour of One Market in San Francisco, allowing Deloitte & Touche to see firsthand the high-speed, ultramodern fiber-optic communications backbone planned for Two California Plaza – unique to the area.

"The technological quality of the building is very important to us," says John Cardis, office managing partner and vice chairman of Deloitte & Touche. "The prime location, the growth potential and the professionalism of the Equity Office people all played a role." Deloitte & Touche signed a 15-year lease for 343,000 square feet in October 1998.