The Situation
Our client is a global pharmaceutical company with a 5.8 million square foot portfolio spanning 155 locations across 62 countries. The company engaged us across a series of projects over multiple years — a long-term strategic partnership in which real estate decisions were made as business decisions, continuously evaluated against evolving financial objectives. The engagement spanned peak COVID conditions.
The Challenge
Managing real estate at this scale and geographic complexity requires a unified strategic framework applied consistently across dozens of markets and legal jurisdictions. The Life Sciences sector adds further complexity — laboratory and research space has fundamentally different requirements, including specialized infrastructure, regulatory compliance, and longer lead times that make strategic planning critical.
The Approach
The work encompassed portfolio optimization across the global footprint — identifying consolidation opportunities, managing disposition of excess space, and executing tenant advisory across markets where the client needed to right-size or reposition. HQ advisory was delivered for key locations, with workplace strategy integrated throughout. Local execution teams were activated and managed in each market, coordinated through a unified strategic framework ensuring consistency of outcome without sacrificing local market intelligence.
A $500 million outcome does not happen through individual transactions — it happens through a strategic framework applied consistently at every level, in every market.