Several firms partner up to form relocation council

BOULDER — Marriage. Divorce. New job. Moving. Death.

“We can handle four,” says James Dawson, an adviser with Waddell & Reed Financial Services in Boulder.

Dawson is part of a newly formed alliance of businesses that helps companies and individuals handle relocations to Boulder County and elsewhere on the Northern Front Range.

“We can help whether people are moving out of the city or into the city,” says Karen MacKenzie, director of corporate relocation for Fowler Real Estate/Better Homes and Gardens. “We have a national presence. And in that respect we’re not just trying to help people move into this location, we’re also available to assist them when they move out of this location.”

The Affiliate Relocation Council of Northern Colorado is MacKenzie’s brainchild. She started the selection process shortly after the Boulder Chamber of Commerce’s Boulder County Business Expo in June. “That’s when I took some of the names that I got from the expo and interviewed them.”

She originally had hoped to develop the council a year ago. She started at Fowler Real Estate in June 1998 and has designed the relocation department from scratch; she expects the affiliate relocation council to make it a success by providing one-stop shopping that allows the corporation to pick and choose the different entities for which they are looking. The service is free while most relocation companies charge a management fee.

The group so far includes Fowler Real Estate, moving and storage companies, counselors, a travel agent, a home-purchase program, a mortgage company, a title company, an inspection company, short-term rental with corporate housing as well as extended-stay hotel, a bank, an employment agency, Waddell & Reed and a human resource management company — to help reestablish a spouse’s career in the transition as well as career counseling services.

The council has published a brochure, and MacKenzie will replace certain companies with others for the Northern Colorado version of the council. An umbrella Web site — the relocation page from fowlerbhg.com — provides links to all of the separate companies.

MacKenzie says the council is important to be able to compete with larger relocation companies. “Bringing a full-fledged relocation package to these companies is going to open the door,” she says.

The idea was to select a carefully screened group of professionals who are well acquainted with the community. “Because we are all local, we can put a personal touch to the relocation process,” MacKenzie says.

The group itself has written bylaws and meets monthly.

“It’s fun — I like the people,” says Dawson of Waddell & Reed. “Already this guy here helped me refinance my condo.”

Janet Todd, human resources relocation coordinator for Level 3 Communications Inc., said such consortiums are of value to companies such as Level 3 and that she meets with the Rocky Mountain Relocation Council to learn about tactics and ideas.

“Meeting with those individuals is especially valuable,” Todd says.

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