Silver Spring, MD – The country’s oldest national AIDS organization has reduced its commercial real estate facility costs by signing a new multi-year lease in the group’s existing space in Montgomery County.
Scheer Partners, the leading provider of fully integrated commercial real estate services in the Washington and Baltimore metropolitan areas, announced today that it has represented the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA) in a new five-year lease for 3,000 square feet of space at 8401 Colesville Road in Silver Spring.
Ben Heller, a leasing agent with Scheer Partners, negotiated the new lease on behalf of NAPWA. He says that the non-profit organization evaluated a number of options for relocation to another local submarket, including D.C. The key, Heller says, was to find space that provided operational efficiencies, and then to execute a lease that mitigated risk. In the end, NAPWA officials decided that remaining in their current space, under a new lease, was the most cost-effective move.
“We’re delighted that the National Association of People with AIDS is continuing to call Silver Spring its home,” Heller says. “NAPWA’s new lease significantly decreases the group’s rental expenses, while allowing the organization to improve its space and diminish its risk.”
NAPWA is a 501(c)(3) certified non-profit organization founded in 1983 by members of the Patient Advisory Committee of the Second National AIDS Forum, held in Denver by what is now the National Lesbian and Gay Health Association. NAPWA is the oldest national AIDS organization and the first network of people living with HIV/AIDS in the world.
Frank J. Oldham Jr., NAPWA’s president and CEO, says that Heller and the team at Scheer Partners were invaluable to his organization. “They have a network of resources and other businesses and services that they connected to us. For example, when we needed plans for office design and equipment, they made informed suggestions and recommendations,” he says. “We are extremely grateful to Ben and Scheer Partners.”