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Railway Tracks

ROW PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

DEODATE Brings Fortune 100 Management Consulting, Analytics, and Strategy to Real Estate Right of Way Acquisitions by operating as a liaison between agency and acquisition firms, outside counsel, relocation, and others.

Right of Way Acquisition
Program Management

DEODATEs RE ROW Program Management approach is unique in that it has been designed utilizing best practices gathered from real estate management consulting engagements for Fortune 500 and Global 1000 firms around the world.  Our approach also employs creative and proven strategies from non-traditional sources and industries.

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These strategies have yielded tremendous cost savings through our active program management strategy and in the efficient management of traditional acquisition firms, third party service providers while shortening turnaround times and enhancing schedule efficiencies. Always on behalf and in representation of the agency.

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  • Our RE ROW PM strategies utilizes project management techniques common in Fortune 100 Firms for effectively managing projects with hundreds if not thousands of tasks between multiple teams.

  • Our external acquisition communication strategy keeps property owners informed on the request for acquisition without added internal staffing demands. This approach of pre-scheduled communication touchpoints has reduced contentious acquisitions and litigation by double digit figures.

  • Our plan focuses all communication to one centralized party (DEODATE) thereby employing the quickest path to receipt of request, gather data, obtain feedback/answers, and closeout request via maximizing queuing theory.

A diagram of how tasks and requests around right-of-way are managed by DEODATE so they're completed on-schedule

  • Our consultants are trained in contract management, strategy, real estate market analysis, project management, and transactional strategy. This background allows for efficiencies in document review, transactional structure, and acquisition closeout by limiting touchpoints with third party service providers to only those that are functionally necessary.

  • To date our approach has yielded a 30% cost savings via billings from acquisition/relocation firms, third party service provider and consultant fees.

  • Our plan has reduced litigation substantially along multiple acquisition types.

  • Our internal market analysis tools have resulted in formulating fair compensation offers that on average are accepted, as proposed, 50% of the time without counteroffer.

  • These strategies have allowed our clients to better budget for real estate acquisition costs while better adhering to project delivery schedules.

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A DEODATE led structure could look much like the one below. However, some organizations are more horizontal/vertical than others which calls for a tailored approach:

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TRADITIONAL ROW PROGRAM MANAGEMENT:

A diagram of the traditional right-of-way project management model

DEODATE'S OPTIMIZED ROW PM MODEL:

A diagram of DEODATE's optimized right-of-way project management model

DEODATE’S APPROACH

Government entities and utilities around the country with Real Estate Right of Way Acquisition (RE ROW) needs deal with an assortment of internal and external variables that can impact project schedule and budget. These needs are traditionally addressed through the application of one of a few traditional program structures, including:

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  • Full outsource of RE ROW to one of a few dozen right of way acquisition firms

  • Full internal RE ROW acquisition program management

  • Hybrid program: Agency manager overseeing RE ROW firm, or RE ROW specialty law firm or both

 

The models follow a linear progression (agency to property owner) with third party service providers and consultants coming entering and exiting the process at multiple points.

These traditional program models tend to create gaps in areas where many acquisitions could lead to schedule delays or budget issues, namely:

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  • Lack of or misunderstanding the real estate market in its present state and forecasted along the life of the acquisition program as well as inability to apply sensitivity analysis to account for potential variations in economic conditions that will impact acquisition budgeting.

  • Community/government outreach related issues concerning sensitive acquisitions.

  • Communication failures from a lack of a centralized information and communication hub that receives, analyses, and distributes information accordingly.

  • Lack of clear timing expectations, property delivery schedules and technical detail with engineering and design departments.

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DEODATE’s approach streamlines the process and thereby highlighting efficiencies in budget and schedule. DEODATE leadership has experience as inhouse personnel at large California public agencies and have consulted for some of the largest government departments and utilities in America. Coupled with our Fortune 500 managed consulting expertise. We add value to public agency and utility real estate departments in onboarding:

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  • Public agency/utility experience

  • Analytics and market data analysis from consultants with Big 4 (accounting) consulting experience

  • Active real estate market experts with experience working some of the largest (top 10) commercial real estate brokerages in the country

  • Corporate program management and strategy consulting experience

  • Typically, right of way acquisition firms are comprised of RWA (or related) experts with technical (engineering, acquisition agents and project management) and appraisal experience. DEODATE works with these firms to bring out efficiencies that reduce costs by applying our expertise in strategy, data insights, and Program Management and execution.

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