Building & Facilities Operations

The Einstein Principle:

Accomplish More By Doing Less

Einstein’s theory of relativity was born from a work ethic principled on narrowing one’s focus (for him this unfortunately left out distractions like hygiene, social decorum and his wife). Property owners and managers should take a page from his book (no, not The Evolution of Physics). They should re-engineer their processes to allow them to focus their attention on select meaningful and productive pursuits.

Today, even the best property managers and owners likely aren’t developing one of the greatest achievements of the past century, but they are being more selective with with their endeavors. OK, so they don’t want to spend their time juggling, but what to do with the other balls?

The most successful organizations select a technology partner to provide the critical information, systems, and support competencies that are not central to a property management organization. Enabling technologies help companies accomplish more with fewer resources, improve service levels, attract and retain tenants, manage assets more effectively, and lower business and financial risk.

The adoption of information collection and reporting tools allows managers the time to apply their skill and experience to more meaningful tenant interactions, decision making, outreach, and brand management. Just don’t pull an Einstein and forget to wear socks.

Tenants, Tenants, Tenants

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Scott Sidman, VP Sales & Marketing

At the intersection of Commercial Real Estate, Corporate Real Estate, automation and technology, is Realcomm, showing CRE professionals how and why to integrate technology into their business. A proud panelist on Realcomm’s next webinar, Building Engines’ Scott Sidman, VP Sales & Marketing, will show examples of how technology can help attract new tenants, and keep the ones you’ve got.

WEBINAR DESCRIPTION:

With the real estate market problems far from being over, operators around the globe have been reintroduced to the concept of tight management. While decreasing expenses is important, keeping your space occupied takes on an even higher priority. Real estate companies are quickly learning that automation can play a key role in effectively managing and retaining existing tenants and can also be a success factor when competing for new tenants. Join us as Realcomm’s panelists discuss using technology to maximize occupancy!

BlueGreen is one of my favorite colors clients. A world-class resort, BlueGreen (NYSE: BXG) operates a little differently than our core of Corporate Real Estate clients. Their idea of tenant satisfaction is installing a 75,000 square-foot pool oasis.

BlueGreen’s specialized industry of leisure and tropical escape required a flexible approach. You see, rigidity and structural confinement are generally seen as antithetical to the resort culture, especially when their slogan is “Colorful Places to Live and Play.” The resort’s unique needs prompted us to rethink our platform’s capabilities.

A client of ours since November 2009, BlueGreen has worked with us to develop a creative property management solution. Here are some of the ways they have optimized the flexibility of the platform:

They have thought outside the sand box in terms of their “Buildings.” In their account, a pool, playground, grill area, or any common area is considered a building, with its own work orders and scheduled PMs. This helps them gain accurate reporting around where the highest demands are. (They are generally wherever the highest concentration of New Jersey vacationers are.)

“Tenants” are essentially room numbers. They have a very specific work order issue list that they use to gain accurate reporting as to the types of issues being reported in their rooms. E.g. “Too much foam in my chocolate hazelccino” or “There is an alligator in my villa.”

Given the size of the resort, the mobile application has become crucial to improving productivity and time management across 54 acres of serene setting. The engineers in the field are able to track, comment, and close work orders without having to return to a computer and spend time closing out the work they have done. More time for the H2O arcade and bar.

You know, I think it’s time for an on-property meeting…

When it comes to building a customer base, I like to follow that universally hated scout song (and bite the bullet of it being in my head all day): Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other’s gold.

Obnoxiously sticky as the tune may be, the simple lesson of valuing both old and new partners bears weight. Maybe the message isn’t profound, but our appreciation for the lifeblood of our company is.

The past month, Building Engines has welcomed a number of progressive real estate owners, managers, and service companies to its service. Ranging across commercial office, medical office, retail, and industrial and mixed use, our ever expanding customer base is a nice complement to the “old gold” we have formed deep relationships with. We hope their decision to join us in a property & tenant management service partnership, is the last one they will have to make.

Here is a look into some of our most recent clients, a sliver of silver:

Canadian Real Estate Investment Trust

Toronto, Canada

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Samuels & Associate

Boston, MA

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Commercial Properties Realty Trust

Baton Rouge, LA

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GBA AssociatesGBA Associates LP

Falls Church, VA

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Simpson Commercial Real Estate Services

Alexandria, VA

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Cross Street Partners

Baltimore, MD

You’re ready to lower operating costs and increase the value of your building. You feel the need, the need for LEED. Now, how do you get buy-in from your team?

LEED certification can be an extremely beneficial tool for a company.  While it can be a hassle to implement, especially in existing buildings, the benefits are plentiful and far-reaching.  Our newest on-demand webinar, LEED EBOM: 101: Essential Tips for the Greening of Existing Buildings, discusses how management should go about gaining LEED certification, and showcases the many positive effects LEED certification has on a building. But just because you recognize the benefits, doesn’t always mean you can realize them.

Here are the steps to build support for LEED Existing Buildings within your organization:

Communicate the Key Selling Points

LEED-EB is good for the environment, leads to tenant retention, reduces operating costs, is a marketing & branding tool, and offers low cost options for achieving sustainable performance.

Address Common Barriers to Implementing LEED

Be Prepared to acknowledge and address common concerns from your team such as:

• Lack of funding- LEED-EB can be done incrementally, is flexible, and offers credits that require little or no capital investment.
• Perception of Extra Expenses- LEED-EB helps solve building problems and reduce operating cost, resulting in saving that mitigate and often exceed the cost of implementing sustainability measures.
• Lack of Human Resources- LEED-EB certification offers flexibility to meet requirements through the efforts of internal staff, outsourcing, or by some combination of both. Gradual implementation means that you can start slowly at any time and kick the procedure into high gear once the time is right for your organization.

Educate Your Team & Increase Understanding of LEED-EB

LEED-EB is a new product from the USGBC. Lack of exposure to these concepts can be a barrier to its adoption. There are numerous resources that provide basic information to help you inform those around you about LEED-EB on the USGBC Web Site: www.usgbc.org.

For more practical information on the proper steps to gaining LEED certification, visit the LEED EBOM: 101 Resource Center. To learn how to manage energy more efficiently and reduce operating costs, check out The Green Spot.

We all had to “fall back” this past weekend (unless you’re one of the lucky ones in Hawaii), but we don’t need to fall back on our old lighting habits. With the end of Daylight Savings Time, comes the end of low electricity bills. Short days mean a long ways to go for your facility’s lighting.

This concept is nothing new. Benjamin Franklin presciently grappled with the idea that day time = money in his essay “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light.” As the face of the $100 bill, Ben Franklin knew how to be green and had money covered.

Today, roughly a third of your utility billing goes towards lighting. How can you conserve energy? Here are a few tips:

Lighten Up!

Use lighter colors on walls and ceilings to maximize the reflection and effect of light sources. Painted walls, along with fabrics and perforated metal, should be strategically placed to offset direct sunlight. Glare distracts site occupants and is the #1 obstructor of daylighting systems.

Here Comes the Sun

Use a lighting system that compliments and supplements natural lighting for energy use cuts, increased worker productivity, and happy tenants. Make sure you are fully utilizing skylights, clerestory windows, conventional glazing, reflective materials, and light pipes.

LED It Shine

Daylight is the most efficient lighting, but after that there’s a variety of light sources each with varying levels of efficiency, color quality, and service life.

Light-Emitting Diodes, LEDs, are a newer light source that can save 50-90% in energy costs. Combined with a reflector upgrade or retrofit, the glare associated with LEDs and the number of fixtures required can be reduced. Tax credits and power company rebates are another advantage of LEDs over fluorescent lighting.

For those who are set on fluorescent, replace T12 lighting systems with energy-efficient T8 lighting and electronic ballasts.

For security and parking lot lighting, high pressure sodium fixtures have the advantage over metal halide, mercury vapor, fluorescent, and incandescent fixtures.

Gain Control

Use lighting controls to adjust electric lights at appropriate times. Use automatic controls that sense ambient daylight to ensure that electric lighting is minimized during strong daylight.

Dimmer switches in stairwells, copy rooms, restrooms, and perimeter lighting fixtures  can trim energy use. For exterior lighting and some interior lighting, time clocks or photoelectric cells can be installed.

Are you seeing the light yet?

Read more on energy management through lighting improvements at Energy Star.

Want to learn more about the greening of existing buildings? Register for a free Webinar, LEED EBOM: 101!

Register Now!

Maybe you’re better than others. Do you know it and how can you show it? Maybe you’ve some catch-up to do in key operational areas. Do you know where and how you should improve?

Get off the bench and get on the benchmarking track! Being a competitive player in CRE demands a comparative analysis of your performance to both that of your peers and best practices in the field. Luckily, we’ve the equipment to start your warm up!

There’s an easy way to measure and benchmark your operational performance. We’ve created a short benchmark survey  that allows for property management professionals to assess their performance across several operational areas and receive immediate feedback based on their responses. Take ten minutes to complete the Operational Assessment Survey and instantly receive a personalized Benchmark Report.

More importantly, you will gain a better understanding of your property’s processes compared to real estate operational best practices. Where do you shine, and where do you need some polishing?

Benchmark the state of your operations for:

1. Tenant Service & Satisfaction
2. Maintenance & Assets
3. Risk Management & Exposure to Liability
4. Online Real Estate Operations

Start the Operations Assessment Survey!

Like the topic? You may also be interested in:

• ON MANAGEMENT: Where Do We Go to Find Best Practices?
• ON MANAGEMENT: 10 Steps to Simple Benchmarking
• Keeping Some Metrics up your Sleeve: 5 Questions you Should Ask
  

LEED existing building certification is a helpful measure to take for many reasons.  It makes you look favorable compared to other buildings lacking certification, it can lower operating costs and increase the value of your building, and more.  Join us as David Pratt, CEO of LoraxPro, shares how to effectively implement LEED into your building and nurture it to reap extensive benefits!

David Pratt is an industry leader in the automation, simplification and project management of LEED certification projects.  He co-founded LoraxPro in 2008 and has developed product supporting the majority of LEED rating systems.  His company was the catalyst in initiating LEED automation with the USGBC’s technology team; they co-developed the XML data protocol that facilitates data exchange between LEED online and 3rd party software tools.  Mr. Pratt’s knowledge of LEED certification is extensive, and his ideas for utilizing LEED are not to be missed.

Mr. Pratt will be delivering essential tips for getting started toward LEED EB certification, getting buy-in from your team, and how to ultimately lower operating costs and increase the value of your building.  Learn about:

• The keys to a successful LEED EBOM implementation
• How to use LEED to keep tenants in your building
• How to overcome resource constraints when managing an LEED EBOM project
• How to measure ROI from a potential LEED investment

These and other topics will be discussed extensively during the webinar.  Register today and tune in on Wednesday, November 16th at 12:00pm EST to learn all about LEED EBOM and how it can work for you!

Register Now!

Property managers must be echo-friendly if they hope to survive in the rental market. According to a recent GlobeSt.com article (whose inspiration and information derives from a panel at the RealShare Apartments Conference in LA), the youngest generation of renters are posed to set standards in the market.

Echo-boomers, the 20 and 30-something children of Baby Boomers, are entering the rental housing market and making demands. Demand making is generally seen as characteristic of this demographic, who is largely known for their technological savvy (and/or dependence) and sense of entitlement. Also known as Generation Y, Generation Next, and Millennials, Echo-boomers are predominantly renters and “nimble” – they are swift to relocate if their demands are not being met.

What does this mean for standards in property management? To satisfy and retain members of Generation Y Stay Here and Generation Next Apartment: requests must be quickly acknowledged, service all online, and technology support fully functional. Building owners and managers should expect fewer walk-ins and phone calls, and more communication with this segment via their preferred methods: laptops, tablets, and smart phones.

According to GlobeSt.com, the trend of conducting business online with these tenants is only increasing, and in many cases resulting in outsourcing for technical-support functions. Essentially, unless property managers want more turnovers than a bakery, they need to watch the boom and cater to this generation.

Tenant Request: Polly Wants a Cracker

One of the latest clients to incorporate Building Engines into their daily routine is the Mesker Park Zoo, located in Evansville, Indiana. Typically when people think of Building Engines, they think of assembling car parts. And then they think of a commercial property management tool. This is because amateur auto mechanics are very prevalent. And the majority of our clients utilize our standard setup, which breaks accounts down by building, employees, and occupying tenant companies. This setup allows for all of a property’s components to fit neatly into the application.

This setup was not going to fit the zoo’s needs as easily. We needed to pony up and figure out a way to meet the zoo’s objectives, while remaining within the confines of the application’s capabilities and proving that we didn’t have a tiger by the tail. This is where we were able to get creative.

After talking more than turkey with the zoo’s Operations Managers and internally discussing available options, we configured the application to not only oversee the buildings, but also the components that didn’t automatically fit neatly into one area or another. Essentially, we sectioned the account into logical areas, including the exhibits, the surrounding regions, and any transportation services that were located within them. This gave the park’s operations team an easy way to track all work orders and preventative maintenance in logical format.

Overall, we have been proud as a peacock with the results. Our work with the Mesker Park Zoo has given us a successful template for additional zoo clients, as well as valuable insight into their daily operations. This insight is what fuels the unexpected enhancements that all of our clients can benefit from, and enables us to separate the sheep from the goats!