What We Heard: NYC Property Management Summit

MHP's COO David Sturner and RDM VP Blake Grosch.

RDM’s Vice President, Blake Grosch was in attendance at The Yale Club for Bisnow’s NYC Property Management Summit.  The event brought together an all-star panel of owners and property managers to discuss the challenges, opportunities, efficiencies and sustainability efforts within the property management industry.

The panel consisted of Principals and CEOs from Murray Hill Properties, Honest Buildings, Monday Properties, Zurich and Rudin Management, with Ronald Kaplan of CohnReznick as moderator.
 

This is what we heard:

Building Needs
- David Sturner (Murray Hill Properties) believes that in order to keep tenants happy they need to know owners are accessible.
- Jeff Shearman (Zurich) notes that landlords need to do a risk assessment before initiating sustainability initiatives.
- Michael Rudin (Rudin Management) sees a challenge with staying relevant in the market -- need to provide a good product consistently.
- Hani Salama (Monday Properties) says you have to be flexible to meet tenant needs.
- Salama feels that property managers don't get enough credit.  They need to be exposed to engineering, construction, and accounting to be effective.

LEED Certification
- Salama says that to stay competitive you need LEED & Energy Star certification.
- Riggs Kubiak (Honest Buildings) believes transparent benchmarking for energy use is important for landlords to operate efficiently.
- Sturner says LEED certification isn't necessarily compatible with class B or C buildings.

Emergency Preparedness
- Shearman has seen landlords sealing their building envelopes post Sandy to reduce flooding in lower levels.
- Rudin is moving the building systems to 2nd and 3rd levels at 110 Wall St to comply with terms of new tenant.
- Shearman fears maintaining a high level of preparedness during periods without challenges.
- Sturner says there are Class A buildings and Class A owners with regard to security procedures set up - best to be safe than sorry.
- Shearman notes that you need to care about your building staff's home needs during an emergency as well.

CRE Technology
- Kubiak sees tech tenants placing a large emphasis on connectivity. Tenants are reliant on the existing infrastructure set by landlords.
- Ronald Kaplan (CohnReznick) notes that he has seen owners not using tech leaving money on the table.
- Kubiak sees a huge amount of capital pouring into NYC focused on CRE tech.
- Kubiak sees a lot of noise about tech in real estate. Questions if all these companies will stick around.

Other
- Salama notes that his buildings are doing well in NYC but somewhat struggling in DC due to the government.
- Rudin mentions that commercial vacancy for his portfolio is very low.
- Sturner notes that staffing and insurance are a big piece of their budget.
- Salama notes operating expenses have been steady over past 3 years -- pay most on taxes.
- Rudin backs affordable housing initiatives but notes incentives need to align to make sense.

For more from the event, check out Real Estate Bisnow.

---
Tags:

Read More

Repositioning Commercial Properties Back to Life

As companies downsize, landlords, rather than rebuild are reinventing structures.  Repositioning commercial properties in order to bring them back to life has become the new trend in CRE. Recently, RDM came across an LA Times article discussing the ways conventional structures in Los Angeles are beginning to be "transformed". However, while the concept of "hackable buildings" may be new to LA, we have noticed this trend for a while in New York City and the East Coast.

Once a bakery complex, Chelsea Market was repositioned into a well-known retail and office location in Manhattan.   Trader Joe’s Brooklyn location was  previously an old bank building, but is now home to the specialty grocery store.  These are just a few examples of building repositioning on the East Coast.  As buildings continue to be retooled and re-branded across the country, we're excited to see what is next.
----

Big changes are coming to conventional office buildings - LA Times

With the lines between our work lives and personal time blurring as new technology unchains us from our desks, the notion of what a desirable office looks like is also changing.

Corporate America is moving away from conventional layouts where an employee's status is measured by the amount of space he occupies. Instead, more compact, playful designs are coming into favor.

People can do their jobs almost anywhere with their cellphones and laptops, the reasoning goes, so let's make the office a place where people are stimulated by close interaction at their workstations and chance meetings in inviting public spaces such as lounges and coffee bars.

This gradual but pervasive shift in workplace culture that packs more employees into less room has been a blow to conventional office buildings in downtown Los Angeles and other financial centers. Acres of space lie vacant even though the economy is improving and many firms are adding workers.

Making underused office properties desirable again may require radical modifications inside and out, real estate experts say. Few owners have taken bold actions yet, but architects and urban planners are scheming about how such transformations might be accomplished.

Cutting out chunks of an office building's interior to create an atrium or theater, adding loft-like mezzanines on floors with high ceilings or grafting on outdoor staircases are among the ways that structures could be dramatically remodeled to be more efficient and appeal to changing tastes.

Such changes could also make it possible for office buildings to accommodate multiple uses. In a real estate industry idea competition last year, architecture firm Gensler suggested that the 40-story Union Bank Plaza in downtown L.A. could be renovated to have auditoriums and classrooms for a school on its lower floors and a large fitness center above. Higher floors could house hotel rooms, apartments and a spa — and still leave room for offices. Read More...

---
Tags:

Read More

Save Time with RDM’s Web-Based CRE Management Software

Our Real Access Commercial software features many great tools to help your organization Market, Manage and Lease buildings; including vibrant stacking diagrams, detailed floor plans and the benefits of accessing your information from the cloud using your iPad or smartphone. In addition, a great time-saving feature of RAC is the ability to pull information directly from your accounting systems and export it to Excel.

Read More

RDM Goes to Washington

On Tuesday, March 16th, Bisnow held its first annual Washington Real Estate Summit at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel. Over 700 real estate professionals made their way to D.C. to discuss the future of the real estate industry. Featuring CEO’s from Cushman & Wakefield, Vornado and CBRE (see the full list here); the panelists were overall optimistic about real estate’s future but agreed that job creation is a key factor. For a full breakdown of the event, check out Bisnow’s 2-part write-up.

RDM President Peter Boritz went to D.C. to address the audience of over 700 on the importance of accurate building measurements and maintaining up-to-date stacking diagrams in this uncertain economy. Boritz demonstrated RDM’s line of web-based space management solutions which ensure stacks and floor plans are always current by linking to accounting systems such as Yardi and MRI. These cost-effective solutions allow property owners and managers the convenience of doing more with less as well as the place them in a better position when the market turns around. The presentation was well-received in an area which is currently evolving.

Based in New York City, RDM provides building measurement and on-demand space management solutions for the real estate industry and has completed over 750 million square feet of projects in over 1,500 buildings coast to coast. Currently, RDM serves over 5 million square feet of office space in the D.C. area and proudly helped sponsor the Bisnow event.

Read More

6 Reasons to Check Your Lease’s Operating Expense Bill

(This guest article was contributed by Marc Betesh, Esq., MCR from KBA's Lease Tips)

Landlords are devoting more time and professional resources to increase revenue. As evidence of this, landlord-oriented articles are appearing in various publications suggesting how to uncover hidden income from tenants through greater attention to tenant pass-throughs. See this recent article entitled "Revenue Recovery" in Commercial Investment Estate Magazine in which the author states, "the new year presents the perfect opportunity for landlords to review lease terms and billing procedures."

Now more than ever, tenants should be reviewing their leases and bills to make sure they do not contain overcharges or errors. Here are 6 reasons why tenants should increase their vigilance with respect to operating expenses and other pass-through charges:

1. Operating expense and tax pass-throughs are expensive.
Real estate can be one of a company’s most significant expenses, and commercial leases are one of its key components. Up to 70% of the cost of a lease can represent the tenant’s obligation to share in building operating costs, taxes and utilities.

2. Mistakes happen.
Because leases are complex, it is common for tenants to be incorrectly billed. Errors can range from simple miscalculations to wholesale misinterpretations of lease language. Many mistakes are unintentional; some are not. Regardless of the cause, errors can result in significant overcharges over time. For examples of the types of errors that occur, see our list of Sample Issues.

3. You don’t get the special treatment you deserve.
While most commercial leases share a common basic structure, leases are individually negotiated and almost always contain unique terms that must be applied to each tenant’s bill separately. Many landlords do not bill each tenant according to their individually negotiated lease terms, but instead follow the building’s standard lease.

4. Your landlord’s CPA’s certification doesn’t mean your bills are correct.
Even though your landlord’s CPA firm may have certified your landlord’s financial records, they almost never certify each tenant’s bill. Furthermore, landlords’ CPA firms typically certify that the operating expenses are properly treated from an owner’s point of view for financial reporting purposes, not from the point of view of a lease pass-through clause. (For a more detailed discussion of lease audit deadlines, see our LeaseTip™ “A CPA Certification is Not Enough.”)

5. The burden’s on you to find errors.
At the beginning of each year, landlords reconcile their buildings’ actual expenses with the amounts contributed by their tenants during the prior year. They then issue adjusting statements that settle each tenant’s liability and establish the new estimates for the current year. Even though landlords must follow their leases when issuing these statements, the burden is on the tenant to identify errors and bring them to their landlords’ attention. If they don’t the bills are considered conclusive and binding.

6. Time works against you.
Leases give tenants very short windows (usually 30-120 days) to object to billing errors. If the tenant does not object in time or does not follow the correct procedures, the statements are deemed correct and errors are no longer fixable. (For a more detailed discussion of lease audit deadlines, see our LeaseTip™ “Negotiating Lease Audit Rights.”)

About Marc E. Betesh
Marc Betesh, President and founder of KBA Lease Services, is considered to be one of the country’s leading experts on lease language construction, lease expenses and effective lease negotiation strategies. Mr. Betesh has been consistently ranked among the “top-ranked faculty” at Corenet Global Learning and is a frequent lecturer on lease topics at New York University’s Real Estate Institute, American Bar Association, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, New York State Society of CPA’s, ICSC, and the Institute of Internal Auditors. Mr. Betesh is a member of the New York and New Jersey Bars, is a Board Member of the NYC Chapter of CoreNet, and is a member of AECRE, ICSC, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, New York State and American Bar Associations. He has his JD from Georgetown University and a BA from Temple University.

About KBA Lease Services
For 25 years, KBA Lease Services has been recognized as the signature firm in lease auditing. KBA focuses on recovering rent overcharges and reducing short and long-term occupancy costs for hundreds of companies nationwide in virtually every industry.

Read More

RDM Brings Icovia Room Planner to the Real Estate Industry

Real estate technology provider, Real Data Management, Inc. has announced a partnership with interactive space planning provider, Icovia®. The partnership adds Icovia’s Room Planner tool to RDM’s Real Access™ software, providing a unique new tool to help market a building’s available spaces.

The Icovia® Room Planner features interactive floor plan technology with a simple drag and drop interface, allowing potential tenants to envision themselves living in a space by making furniture choices and arrangements to fit their needs. The software includes a wide variety of furniture options complete with product details and dimensions. Room plans are also easily printed or emailed.

This breakthrough technology gives potential tenants the confidence of making informed decisions and property owners a powerful lead generating and marketing tool.

To schedule a demo of RDM’s Real Access™ with Icovia® Room Planner, call (212) 213-8190 or email ryan@rdm1.com.

About RDM
For over 25 years, Real Data Management has been a valuable resource for commercial, residential and corporate real estate portfolios providing software and services to help clients more effectively manage, market and lease their properties. Visit www.rdm1.com to learn more.

About Icovia
Hundreds of thousands of consumers, sales associates and designers launch Icovia® every day. More than two million designs and plans have been saved in Icovia’s databases and Icovia converts the traffic from licensee sites into over 50,000 registered and profiled prospects every month. For more information, go to www.icovia.com.

Read More

RDM On The Move

RDM calls the city of New York its home but supporting over 1,500 buildings for some of the biggest names in real estate means we go where they need us.

In the last few months, our team have provided real estate services and software solutions to clients in:

• Dallas (TX)
• Little Rock (AR)
• Washington (DC)
• Las Vegas (NV)
• Manchester (NH)
• Livonia (MI)

Read More

RDM Demystifies National Building Measurement Methods

by Peter Boritz

In Real Estate no square foot is the same. When it comes to commercial property, everyone measures space differently, and depending on the measurement method used the same property will have different square footage calculations. RDM, the leading provider of building measurement solutions for over 25 years, recently has written a white paper demystifying the national building measurement methods.

It is vital for the commercial real estate industry to have accurate property measurements in order to ensure maximization of revenues, especially in the current uncertain market. RDM’s White Paper aims to provide the reader with valuable information on building measurement methods, such as BOMA, Modified BOMA, and REBNY, and where each is to be used and why. It discusses trends in distinct markets in the United States and the importance of having the appropriate property measurements portfolio-wide.

The more informed you are about the methods of building measurement the more aware you are of how to maximize your gains.

Read More

Greener: it’s a win-win game

by Kasia Janczura


Our world has just recently been hit with a wave of green initiatives, but many individuals have been focusing on environmentally friendly behavior for far longer. Take IKEA for example. They have a strict policy of charging their customers for using plastic bags. Take any European store for that matter. Walking into stores expecting plastic bags is not the common trend that became the norm in the states. Being environmentally-conscious, or as we call it, following “Green” trends, not only makes the planet healthier, it also decreases costs for companies (no bags, less to spend on equipment.)

We must stress the importance of socially responsible business operations. It will promote the formation of a positive image of the Real Estate Industry, while providing for the greater good of the society. We must grow our businesses in environmentally and socially responsible measures. Progress towards a “greener” business structure is still needed, and we must not elude this transformation, but embrace it.

RDM strives to be a greener business every day. We depend more on electronic documentation storage and correspondence, using less paper for printing. When at all possible, we use recycled and scrap paper for printing. In addition, we recycle, use reusable grocery bags when shopping for office supplies, save energy by turning off all our electronics when not in office, and have equipped our kitchen with reusable silverware and dishes, not to rely on wasteful Styrofoam cups and paper plates. We are bettering our environment while decreasing our operational costs.

We encourage our clients in green practices as well. RDM’s newly developed product, RealAccess™ will help our clients do just that.

It is a common conception that becoming greener is coupled with less comfort, a notion in need of immediate correction:>

RDM’s RealAccess™ maximizes efficiency in resource utilization and implementation by eliminating unnecessary tasks that are replaced with its single portal feature. It’s a one-stop for all portfolio needs: client service, advertisement and marketing, property updates and information, filing, and more.

There is no waste accumulation, no excessive energy usage, no unnecessary printing, and, most importantly, no extra cost (rather the opposite, companies become more cost-efficient). In addition to promoting Green measures,RealAccess™ facilitates and expedites transmissions, communication, and organization within a company. It is fast, easy, and affordable, while efficient, good for the environment and well perceived by the public.

Becoming more environmentally conscious and cost-effective will allow for real estate businesses to maximize their profit while promoting an eco-friendly vibe to their businesses. Going green is a way of life which, sooner or later will be mandatory. There is still chance for the Real Estate Industry to implement changes while in the introductory phase of the transformation from the old to the “green” strategies. We just have to make sure that it’s not last to do so.

Read More