Planning a Dallas Office Move

An office relocation in Dallas is rarely about the truck. By the time move day arrives, the work is execution: the real complexity lives in the eight to twelve weeks of planning that come first. COI approvals, freight elevator reservations, IT cutover sequencing, employee communication, building access at both ends, all running in parallel.

This guide is for office managers, facilities leads, and operations directors planning a Dallas office move. It covers the five workstreams that need to run simultaneously, the timeline that keeps them aligned, what makes Dallas commercial buildings specific, and how to budget the move.

Most office moves fail in the same places. Not because the moving company drops something, but because one of these five workstreams gets started too late or hands off badly to another:

• Physical logistics: furniture, files, equipment, packing, transport, reinstall
• IT infrastructure: servers, network, phones, workstations, cutover sequencing
• Building coordination: COIs, elevator and dock reservations, access windows, security
• Employee communication: timeline, desk assignments, commute changes, what to pack personally
• Administrative tasks: address changes with vendors and clients, lease management, utilities

For an office with more than 10 workstations, each workstream needs an owner. A single point of contact handling all five is the single most common cause of last-minute scrambles.

12 weeks out

Lease signed at the new location. Internal move committee formed and project lead named. Commercial mover selected and on contract. Initial walkthroughs at both addresses by the mover. Building management contacted at both ends, COI requirements requested in writing.

8 weeks out

Detailed furniture and equipment inventory complete. IT cutover plan drafted, including server shutdown and network restoration windows. Floor plans for the new space finalized so the move crew knows where everything goes. Employee announcement sent.

6 weeks out

COIs submitted to both buildings. Freight elevator reservations confirmed in writing. Loading dock windows locked in. After-hours security access arranged at both buildings. Packing materials delivered to the office.

4 weeks out

Employee packing begins for non-essentials. IT begins parallel infrastructure work at the new space when possible (cabling, network drops, phone provisioning). Address change list drafted (vendors, clients, banks, insurance, business filings).

2 weeks out

Desk assignment maps distributed. Freight elevator and parking confirmed in writing one more time. IT shutdown sequence finalized. Move-day roles assigned to committee members.

Move week

Final packing completed. Employees take personal items home. IT executes shutdown after business hours. Movers load Friday evening, drive to new space, unload Saturday. IT reconnects Saturday night. Sunday for testing and contingency. Monday: team walks in operational.

If your timeline is shorter than 8 weeks, the move is still possible but the margin for COI rework or building scheduling conflicts gets thin. For moves of more than 50 employees or complex IT infrastructure, plan 16 to 24 weeks.

Certificates of Insurance

This is the single most common point of friction in Dallas office moves. Most Class A buildings (One Arts Plaza, Trammell Crow Center, KPMG Plaza, Comerica Bank Tower) require COIs from the mover before any truck or crew can enter the loading dock. Coverage minimums vary by building, $1 million is typical, $2 million with umbrella is common for higher-end towers.

The mistake we see often: an office manager paraphrases the building’s COI requirements to the mover instead of forwarding the building’s exact language. Send the building’s sample COI wording and additional insured language directly to your mover, not a summary. We’ve covered this in depth in our Dallas office move COI guide.

Freight elevator reservations

Most Dallas towers operate freight elevators on a reservation system with specific windows. The Crescent, The Galleria, Energy Plaza, and most downtown Class A buildings limit moves to evenings, weekends, or specific weekday hours. A reservation is not the same as a confirmation, ask for written confirmation with date, time window, elevator size, and any building staff requirements.

Loading dock access

Downtown Dallas dock access can be the deciding factor in your move timeline. Several buildings (Republic Center, Bank of America Plaza) have docks that only fit 26-foot trucks, not full 53-foot trailers. If your inventory needs a larger truck, you may need a shuttle truck arrangement, which adds time and cost.

After-hours and weekend windows

Most commercial moves in Dallas happen Friday evening through Sunday night. This minimizes business disruption and matches building rules. The standard execution: load Friday after 6 PM, transport overnight, unload Saturday and Sunday, IT cutover Sunday evening, team operational Monday morning.

A good commercial mover handles workstations, monitors, desktop computers, standard office equipment, printers, and copiers. What a good commercial mover does not handle: live rack-mount servers, active SAN equipment, or anything still powered on. Those go to specialist IT relocation crews with dedicated environmental controls and chain-of-custody documentation.

The IT cutover sequence that consistently works:

• Cable, jack, and network drops at the new space completed before move day
• Internet circuit ordered for the new space at least 60 days out (Dallas has variable lead times, especially for fiber)
• Phone system migration scheduled in parallel with the physical move, not after
• Server shutdown last on Friday, server power-up first on Sunday
• Workstation reconnect sequenced by department so critical functions come online first

Our detailed IT cutover playbook is in the Dallas office IT move plan.

Cost varies more in commercial moves than residential because scope varies more. Honest ranges:

• Small office (under 2,000 sq ft, 5 to 15 workstations): $3,000 to $12,000
• Mid-sized office (2,000 to 10,000 sq ft, 15 to 75 workstations): $12,000 to $50,000
• Large office (10,000 to 25,000 sq ft, 75 to 250 workstations): $50,000 to $150,000
• Enterprise relocation (25,000+ sq ft): custom quoted, often $150,000 to $500,000+

Variables that move the number meaningfully: weekend or after-hours premium, packing scope, furniture disassembly and reassembly (modular workstations are time-intensive), specialty items (fine art, oversized conference tables, server room components), storage between move-out and move-in dates, and the number of building coordinations involved.

For any office move, ask for a scope-based written proposal, not a rough hourly estimate. Hourly billing on a commercial move almost always ends in disputed final invoices.

Storage and phased moves

Many Dallas office relocations don’t happen as a single weekend cut. New build-outs run late, furniture installations slip, or the lease overlap forces a phased move. In any of those cases, having a holding solution for furniture, files, or IT equipment matters.

We provide commercial storage in Dallas specifically for office moves: climate-controlled, security-monitored, with inventory tracking. If your new space isn’t ready when the lease ends at the old one, storage isn’t a fallback, it’s part of the plan.

How to choose a Dallas office mover

Beyond the basics (licensed, insured, USDOT registered), the questions that matter for commercial moves:

• How many Dallas office moves have you completed at our size or larger in the past 12 months?
• Can you handle COI submission directly to building management, or do we need to relay paperwork?
• What’s your process when a building rejects a COI or changes the move window with short notice?
• Do you provide a single project manager from estimate through walkthrough, or do contacts change?
• Are after-hours and weekend moves your standard, or your exception?
• What’s your written process for damage to building property versus damage to our property?

If a commercial mover hesitates on any of those, treat that as the answer.

Planning a Dallas office move?

Element Moving handles commercial relocations across Dallas, from small professional services offices to corporate campus moves. We provide COIs at both buildings, dedicated project management from estimate through completion, after-hours and weekend execution, and the commercial storage capacity to handle phased moves. Request a walkthrough and we’ll build the timeline backward from your target operational date.