There may be nothing more stressful to a business than a big move of your office space. Packing and unpacking all your furniture, equipment, IT, and valuables is really a tremendous hassle for any company to do. There are just so many moving variables that come into play that make it anything but straightforward. For this episode of “Conversations with Cohen,” I’ve brought on Mark Green, owner of Sher-Del Transfer. His company specializes in helping businesses through these challenging circumstances.
About Mark & Sher-Del Transfer
Mark’s father Joseph first started Sher-Del Transfer over 70 years ago on Sherriff and Delancy streets under the Williamsburg bridge. He took the beginning of each of those street names, “Sher” and “Del,” and created Sher-Del Transfer. Today, Mark and his brother Stanley co-own and run this impressive business. Their operation owns over 100,000 square feet of storage warehouse space in New Jersey and over 30 moving trucks.
So, what can Sher-Del Transfer offer you? Well, it really runs the gamut. They work with both large and mid-size companies and offer storage solutions across the spectrum, from furniture, record, IT and logistical, to furniture installation. They’re a real leader in the moving industry and my absolute go-to for clients in need of any those resources.
Sher-Del Transfer in a Covid-19 World
We all know how strange and challenging a time this is for businesses to function properly, so I asked Mark what his team over at Sher-Del Transfer can offer clients in the current climate. I want to highlight one area in particular that Sher-Del Transfer can be incredibly valuable in: digital access.
You may not think this would be a key area of focus for a moving company but that’s where Sher-Del Transfer really takes their business to the next level. Many of their clients have had challenging times recently with Covid-19 restrictions, whether that’s a pause on a new move, trouble packing up their space, or halted construction. Sher-Del Transfer has been sending their folks in to their clients’ facilities to pack everything up, categorize inventory, asset label, and take back to their storage facility. Where they’re providing some really incredible value, is with their ability to get information in some files or specific data for clients through their digitally web-based systems. Clients can give Sher-Del Transfer a call saying they need to check up on something, and they can go right in to see where everything is stored and located and fax or email something right over.
Ensuring the organization and availability of their clients’ stuff is just part of the puzzle though. Sher-Del Transfer also makes sure they’re handling their clients’ property well and minimizing the risk of infection – both for themselves and their clients.
Choosing a Mover
I asked Mark what the top things to keep in mind or ask are for clients considering a new lease for midtown office space or if they are looking downtown. He had some really great insights. The first area he recommends folks check out is to make sure they find a company with a nice long history of commercial moving. When you’re moving offices or packing some stuff up, that’s really valuable property and information that you have. Priority number one should be ensuring the people you hire to handle all that stuff is doing so responsibly and sensitively. But past that, it’s not a simple process of bringing people in to pack up your stuff. There’s project management involved, logistics, and lots of organization. Those with experience will be the best suited to handle every aspect of the job.
The next two points Mark brought up really play off one another, and those are flexibility and depth of services when focusing on the office leasing process. Lots of things come up during a move such as construction delays, building delays, inaccessibility to the entrance and a host of other issues. A mover’s ability to be flexible and adapt to the circumstances is vital to a successful moving process. But it doesn’t stop there. It’s one thing to be flexible but it’s another to be able to actually offer a solution after having to adapt. The mover you choose has to have a depth of services available so that they can still get the job done when challenges come up. Sher-Del Transfer passes these tests with flying colors. They’ve experienced moves under the toughest and strangest circumstances you can imagine such as moving wind tunnels into the Annapolis Naval Academy, handling science equipment, or dealing with moves during 9/11.
So, how do you make sure you’re actually getting all this when you’re looking into movers? Well, you do the basic checkups like asking for their resume and speaking with previous clients of theirs. What’s also really important is to check with the owner of your building to make sure there’s a good relationship between them as well as being caught up on the latest from an insurance perspective. For example, in a move Mark recommends that you never purchase insurance from the mover themselves.
Also Keep an Eye Out for…
Hidden costs. According to Mark, one of the biggest one’s is tenants who plan on moving their existing furniture. Most office leasing agreements require the tenant to empty the space out should the landlord want that. A lot of tenants feel that their furniture, equipment, and technology systems are fully functional and there’s no need to buy anything new. What Mark’s folks over at Sher-Del Transfer suggest, is the possibility that it’ll cost their clients more to go through the convoluted process of disassembling, moving, and then reassembling all their equipment rather than just purchasing new stuff. The alternative to this is a process called liquidation.
The idea of liquidation is that the tenant is required to empty their space out, and so they need to get rid of that equipment. This can be done by discarding it, though that’s often viewed as a waste for perfectly functional equipment and there are costs to ensuring it’s done in an environmentally conscious way. Sher-Del Transfer can help reach out to either wholesalers for the possibility of selling it off, or possibly donating it and getting a tax benefit letter of donation. While Sher-Del Transfer would technically make more off of moving their clients’ equipment rather than liquidating it, they always give their clients the data to make these decisions knowledgeably.
A Little Something Extra…
Food. We always have to talk about that a bit. Mark is a grill master and has been having a field day with his gas grill at home. If you’re a real gourmet chef, he recommends checking out Bryant and Cooper’s steakhouse with their own retail butcher shop. If you just want nice quality meat (like me), Stew Leonard’s or Costco will do – supposedly they’ve got some nice quality stuff. If that’s the direction you go in, grab some ribeye’s (Mark says with the bone in) cut 2-3 inches thick or hit up their New Zealand baby lamb chops. Simple seasoning does the trick – you want to taste that meat!
As far as restaurants that Mark wants to get back into, he can’t wait to sit down and tuck into cajun ribeye’s or great angry lobster at Maloney and Porcelli’s on 50th Street. That lobster has some spicy type of cajun seasoning on there and is served with a side of mashed potatoes. Mark swears by it, so I made him promise me we’d go there together when we’re both back in New York City.
Check out my FULL video interview with Mark Green, Sher-Del Transfer’s website to learn more about what they can do for you, and those food links are all right above. Sit tight for our next post and stay safe (and hungry)!