Closing an office in Denver is a project with one hard deadline, the lease surrender date, and the furniture is usually the last thing anyone plans for and the first thing that blows the timeline. This checklist covers office closure from the moment the decision is made through the landlord walkthrough: what has to happen with the furniture, IT, and the space in weeks 8 through 0, where office liquidation fits, what the lease actually requires you to remove, and which steps can be compressed when the date is close. Pear Project Services has cleared Denver offices for 40 years as the office liquidation company on the furniture side, from 10-person suites to full corporate floors, and this is the sequence that gets the keys back on time with a buyback check instead of a hauling bill.
Key Points
Closing an office in Denver: the short version.
- Read the surrender clause first. “Broom clean,” “remove all personal property,” and “restore to original condition” mean three different scopes and three different budgets.
- Book liquidation 6 to 8 weeks out. That is when buyback offers are strongest and after-hours crews are easiest to schedule. Two weeks is workable; three days is a hauler.
- Furniture leaves last. IT disconnects, data wiping, and records go first. Crews should walk into a floor of furniture with nothing on it.
- Sell in sets, donate the rest, recycle what is left. Get a diversion report for the sustainability file.
- Walk the space with the landlord before the surrender date, not on it, so punch-list items do not turn into holdover rent.
Step 1: Read the Lease Surrender Clause (Week 8)
Every Denver office closure starts with three questions from the lease: what must be removed, what condition the space must be in, and what happens if you miss the date. “Remove all furniture, fixtures, and equipment” is the common language, and it puts every desk, cubicle, and file cabinet on your side of the ledger. “Broom clean” means empty and swept; “restore to original condition” can mean removing low-voltage cabling, patching walls, and pulling anything you added. Holdover clauses in Denver Class A leases typically run 125 to 200 percent of base rent, which is why the surrender date is the only deadline that matters. If you are unsure whether your project is liquidation, decommissioning, or a move, office liquidation vs decommissioning vs relocation clarifies the scope.
Step 2: Inventory and Get a Liquidation Quote (Weeks 8 to 6)
Count the floor before anyone quotes it: workstations by system, private offices, conference rooms, chairs by model, storage, reception, breakroom. Photograph each area. Then get a liquidation quote that shows three lines, buyback, removal, and net. This is the window when buyback offers are strongest, because the buyer has time to schedule removal around resale demand. Office liquidation cost in Denver explains what each line should look like, and office furniture buyback explains how the credit is built.
What to have ready for the walkthrough
Floor plan or station count, surrender date, building rules on freight elevators and dock hours, insurance certificate requirements, and a list of anything that is staying with the space (built-ins, landlord-owned fixtures).
Step 3: Decide What Stays, Sells, Donates, and Recycles (Week 6)
Four buckets. Anything moving to a new space gets tagged and handed to the relocation plan. Commercial-grade furniture under 10 years old from Herman Miller, Steelcase, Haworth, Knoll, Teknion, Allsteel, HON, or Kimball sells. Serviceable pieces without resale value donate to Front Range schools and nonprofits. Damaged, residential-grade, and end-of-life pieces recycle by material. Pear sorts all four inside one project and documents the split. For the full decision framework, read what to do with office furniture when you move.
Handed the office closure with a date and no plan?
Nobody gets promoted for a clean closure. Everybody remembers holdover rent.
If you are the office manager, operations lead, or controller who inherited the shutdown, you already know the exposure: miss the surrender date and the company pays 150 percent rent to keep a floor of furniture nobody wants. The furniture is not the hard part. The sequencing is.
Pear plans the furniture side backward from the surrender date and puts the removal dates in writing. Walkthrough this week, quote in two days, crews scheduled around the building, keys back on time. The first conversation costs nothing.
Step 4: IT, Records, and Data Before Furniture (Weeks 5 to 3)
Furniture crews should walk into a floor with nothing on the desks. That means IT disconnects, monitor and dock removal, secure data wiping or e-waste pickup, shredding of records, and clearing personal items all happen before removal days. Coordinate the e-waste vendor and the liquidator so cabling and monitor arms are handled once. Pear coordinates directly with your IT team on what stays attached to furniture (monitor arms, power modules) and what does not.
Step 5: Building Coordination and Removal Days (Weeks 3 to 1)
Certificates of insurance
Denver Class A buildings require COIs from every vendor on site. Pear carries commercial general liability and provides certificates to building management before the first crew day.
Freight elevators and dock windows
Reserve them as soon as removal dates are set. Most downtown buildings restrict furniture removal to after hours or weekends, which adds a 25 to 50 percent crew premium and needs to be in the quote.
Removal sequence
Suites under 50 stations clear in 1 to 2 days. Floors of 100 to 300 stations take 3 to 5 days: systems furniture first, loose seating and storage second, reception and conference last. Resellable inventory ships to the warehouse; donations are placed; recycling is staged.
Protect the common areas
Corner guards, floor protection, and elevator pads are the difference between a clean surrender and a damage deduction from the security deposit.
Step 6: Landlord Walkthrough and Close-Out (Week 0)
Walk the space with building management a day or two before the surrender date, not on it. Punch-list items (a stray pedestal, wall anchors, a dock scuff) get fixed while the crew is still on site. Pear delivers the diversion report at close, showing what was resold, donated, and recycled by weight and count, and reconciles the buyback credit on the final invoice. Keys go back on time, and the closure file has the paperwork your CFO and sustainability lead will ask for.
When the date is close
If you are inside two weeks, skip the shopping and call one liquidator with a warehouse and a crew. Buyback will be lower than with lead time, but a buyer who can start in 48 hours beats a hauler at any price.
Ready when you are
Get the closure planned backward from your surrender date.
Send the address, square footage, station count, and surrender date. Pear schedules a free walkthrough the same week and returns a written quote with buyback, removal, net, and the removal dates.
Closing an Office in Denver: Common Questions
How far in advance should I plan an office closure in Denver?
Six to eight weeks before the surrender date for a standard suite; 10 to 12 weeks for a multi-floor closure. Two weeks is workable with a liquidator that has its own crew; three days is a hauler’s job.
What does “broom clean” mean in a Denver office lease?
The space is empty of furniture, fixtures, equipment, and debris and has been swept. It does not usually require patching, painting, or removing low-voltage cabling unless the lease says “restore to original condition.”
Who is responsible for removing office furniture at lease end?
The tenant, in almost every Denver commercial lease. Anything left behind is removed by the landlord at the tenant’s expense, typically at hauler rates with no buyback.
What happens if I miss the lease surrender date?
Holdover rent, commonly 125 to 200 percent of base rent, plus potential damages if a new tenant is delayed. Missing the date costs more than the entire liquidation.
Can I sell the office furniture instead of paying to remove it?
Yes, if it is commercial-grade and under about 10 years old. Pear buys resellable inventory and credits it against removal, and many Denver closures net at or near zero.
What should be done before the furniture crew arrives?
IT disconnects, monitor and dock removal, data wiping, records shredding, and personal items cleared. Crews should walk into a floor with nothing on the desks.
Do office liquidators handle e-waste and IT equipment?
Pear coordinates with your IT or e-waste vendor and handles cabling, monitor arms, and power modules attached to furniture. Servers and network hardware go through your IT team.
What documentation do I get at the end of an office closure?
A diversion report showing what was resold, donated, and recycled by weight and count, plus the final invoice reconciling the buyback credit. Building management gets certificates of insurance before crews arrive.
Do you close offices in Boulder and Colorado Springs?
Yes. Pear runs office closures and liquidations across the Front Range, including Boulder, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, and Greeley.
How do I get started on an office closure in Denver?
Call (303) 351-2259 or submit the contact form with the address, square footage, station count, and surrender date. Learn more about Pear Project Services on Google.
Forty years of keys handed back on time
A closure is only stressful when the furniture has no plan.
The Denver closures that go smoothly are not the ones with the biggest budgets. They are the ones where the furniture had a buyer, a crew, and a date six weeks out, and the IT and records work was finished before removal day.
Pear owns the furniture side from inventory to diversion report. That is the part most closure checklists leave to the last week, and the part that decides whether you pay holdover rent.
Surrender date set?
Put the furniture on a plan this week.
Free walkthrough across the Denver metro and Front Range, written buyback and removal quote, after-hours crews, landlord walkthrough support, and a diversion report at close.
