NKF principal Seth Weinstein, the lead account rep for the assignment says NKF will be conducting a global site search for McAfee, which he says is planning to hire mostly salespeople and engineers across several different business units. Michael Ippolito, chairman of NKF's global corporate services unit says NKF will focus not only on managing McAfee's real estate but also the company's "total spend." McAfee was not immediately available Tuesday for comment but in a prepared statement said NKF "has taken the guesswork out of identifying optimal labor forces and locations" and "saves us a tremendous amount of management's time."

Worldwide, McAfee leases 1.29 million square feet. It also owns a 170,000 square feet regional facility in Plano, TX. McAfee's world headquarters occupies approximately 188,000 square feet in Santa Clara [not including 20,000 square feet that it subleases to a third party] under leases expiring through 2013. Its primary international leaseholds are in India, Ireland, Japan, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Singapore. Its primary US leaseholds are in California, Oregon and Minnesota.

McAfee's Plano facility houses 850 employees. By that math, the company would need approximately 250,000 square feet to house an additional 1,200 employees. NKF did not detail how the real estate requirement is to be fulfilled, which could range from one building to multiple buildings, in one location or multiple locations, in the US, internationally or both.

This is the second significant recent assignment for NKF's corporate services unit. It also recently assumed management of Avaya's eight-million-square-foot, 277-office portfolio. In that assignment NKF says it reviews and assesses Avaya's existing processes and core objectives on an ongoing basis and proposes strategies.