The search for what to rent next is taking a break while we explore once again the many reasons why companies choose to rent instead of purchase. We’ve seen a big increase in commercial furniture rental activity of late in just the past few months. It’s typically the busy season for many types of firms who rely on a rental furniture solution at certain times of the year. For instance, almost all the major, top tier law firms are actively recruiting at Americas’ major prestigious law schools like Yale and Harvard, with the express purpose of filling their “summer intern” programs. As the economy is strong at the moment, and it appears most successful businesses are at or near full capacity, law firms really aren’t any different and don’t have empty desks or unfilled cubicles for interns. This means they have to plan on renting desks and chairs for their summer workers. 

As I’ve written in several of my previous articles for this publication, there are many reasons why it often makes more sense to rent for these kinds of needs than it does to purchase. Any short term requirement or business venture that’s not going to last beyond six or nine months, whether it’s a new venture that’s yet to prove it can be successful with a new business model, or a company that’s just doing a short term project. These are the types of situations when renting would be more cost effective and less cumbersome than making an investment in all new office furniture. 

The motion picture industry is one such industry that is almost always producing a new movie or filming in a new city for a short period of time. Often times that same production company might film in multiple cities before the production is complete. Most major cities including Atlanta, Boston and New York, offer steep concessions and tax breaks to motion picture studios to bring their film crews, and production staffs to their city. We’ve supplied many major motion picture companies over the years in Boston, for a variety of their needs including, their production offices. Of course we’ve also provided the furniture for the film sets as well, including office cubicles, conference tables and chairs. Private office settings of upscale executive “U” desk units with appropriate high design styled office seating, can really make a film set snap! Some of our smaller independent production company projects included Little Lord Productions, and Patch Bay Productions. These smaller production companies routinely produce films for SONY Pictures and NETFLIX. We’ve also done work for the bigger studios including Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures and 20^th Century Fox. Not to be left out, the other movie production companies whose movies end up on television have rented from us before including HBO, Showtime and A&E. We once supplied the reception and employee lounge area for “Project Runway All Stars,” which typically only ran about two months for the entire reality TV series that produced an entire season. 

We do offer a wide variety of furniture rental solutions that cover a wide range of other needs for production companies including post production suites, and talent trailers. At AFR Furniture Rental, Inc. we’ve built a loyal following of rental customers across several segments such as residential, special events and trade shows, which means production companies could chose AFR to provide the apartment furnishings for the actors, actresses, directors, producers, and film crews. When the films premiere takes place at a special location to include a party for the entire cast, they could rely on AFR Event Furnishings to once again provide an event setting suitable for an Oscar winning venue. 

Production companies that have used us for their production offices and sets have not been limited to just the motion picture companies. We’ve done many television productions including the “Project Runway” for Bunim/Murray Productions, and “The Apprentice,” a Mark Burnett production which featured a billionaire New York City real estate developer who went on to become even more famous as the current occupant of the White House, President Donald Trump. CBS hired us to help produce an entire season of “The Rachael Ray Show,” just to mention a few that needed to quickly set up a back office. 

We look forward to hearing from you and even if you’re not producing a major motion picture film, you may well still find yourself in need of a furniture rental solution and AFR Furniture Rental Inc., is here to help you! 

Ron Lanzo is the national accounts manager for AFR Furniture Rental, Inc.’s Commercial Division and works out of their New York City office.