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United Nations Federal Credit Union Headquarters (Court Square Place ) Earns LEED Silver Certification
Powerhouse Science Center Welcomes Envision Realty Services
Envision Realty Services recently became a Founding Partner for the Powerhouse Science Center. The Center is a high-tech, hands-on, science museum that immerses our children – and our children’s children – in science, technology, engineering and math. Powerful demonstrations will show that the skills necessary for tomorrow’s economic success are fascinating and fun! Positioned between Discovery Park and Old Sacramento, along the river walk and just off I-5, a power plant over 100 years old will be reborn into a regional destination and educational landmark for students, teachers, and families.
Press Release
Envision Realty Services, Inc. Announces its 50th LEED EB: O&M Certification; Green Buildings are Good for the Economy and Good for Business
Press Release
Lincoln Plaza Earns LEED® Silver Certification for an Existing Building
Press Release
LEED-EB Gold Buildings – AEW's Leadership at 1155 Perimeter Center West
Craig Sheehy in May 2009 Edition of
Building Operating Management
Magazine
"Moving From Facility
Manager to FM Consultant"
Press Release
Pershing Point
Earns Leed® Certified Certification For An Existing Building
Press Release
Accenture
Tower Earns Leed® Silver Certification For An Existing
Building
PRESS RELEASE:
Lincoln Plaza Earns LEED® Silver Certification for an Existing Building
August 28th 2009, submitted by CBRE Investors
For more information: www.thelincolnplaza.com
Eco-friendly measures include energy efficient chillers, more convenient recycling
DALLAS - Aug. 28, 2009 - Lincoln Plaza, located at 500 North Akard Street in downtown Dallas, has been awarded the LEED® Silver certification for an Existing Building: Operations & Maintenance (EB O&M) from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a leading-edge rating system certifying the greenest performing buildings in the world and a nationally accepted benchmark for building sustainability. Lincoln Plaza, which is owned by the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CaISTRS) and managed by CB Richard Ellis, is the first privately owned, multitenant high-rise office building in the Dallas central business district (CBD) to earn the LEED® Silver EB O&M designation.
Working with CalSTRS' investment adviser, CBRE Investors, and with Envision Realty Services to transform the building using CBRE's Standards of Sustainability, CBRE has introduced numerous eco-friendly measures that contributed to the building's certification by lowering energy usage, including installation of state-of-the-art energy efficient chillers. Lincoln Plaza also implemented a more user-friendly recycling program that eliminated the need to separate recyclable materials, promoting more participation, and offers E-Waste recycling for old computers, batteries and other electronic devices. Lincoln Plaza also boosts the first fully LEED EB O&M certified tenant improvement buildout project in the Dallas CBD. The building has earned the Energy Star rating for four consecutive years.
"We are honored to have achieved the LEED Silver EB designation and want to acknowledge and express our appreciation for the efforts of our vendors and others who assisted in this endeavor. Also, we are pleased for our tenants to receive the benefits of the LEED certification," said Jim Hardwick, of CBRE's Asset Services Division and General Manager at Lincoln Plaza.
Lincoln Plaza is a 1,113,575 square feet 45-floor Class A office tower located in the center of the vibrant and prestigious cultural and entertainment district of downtown Dallas. The elegant office tower, which boasts an unmistakable profile in the city's skyline, is clad in Dakota Mahogany granite and features a serrated design creating numerous corner offices on each floor. Dramatic fountains aoo extensive landscaping showcase the plaza areas and provide a calm, relaxing atmosphere, while lighted trees surrounding the entire city block provide a striking view at night. The tower has a two-story atrium lobby with patterned Italian marble floors and integrated Makore hardwood, and the elevator lobbies feature fine hardwoods, bronze finishes and custom hand-woven carpets. Typical floor-plates are approximately 25,000 square feet. Extensive renovations were recently completed in the main lobby, the lower level and the 45 Oaks cafe on the 2nd floor. The building currently has 175,000 square feet of contiguous space available for rent on floors 20 through 26, according to Blaine Hale, Director of Leasing.
More information is available at www.thelincolnplaza.com
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PRESS RELEASE:
LEED-EB Gold Buildings – AEW's Leadership at 1155 Perimeter Center West
Issue 3, 2009 Insight Magazine, www.boma-atlanta.org
By Lorry B. Jensen, Property Manager, TPA Realty Services, LLC
"Driven by a core belief that corporations have a responsibility to their local community and the global environment, AEW Capital Management L.P. has consistently taken a strong, proactive approach to resource conservation, waste reduction, environmental protection and sustainability. After deciding to take on the challenge of the LEED certification program, Craig Sheehy and Brian Morrison with Envision Realty evaluated 1155 Perimeter Center West and provided detailed opportunities to both improve the building's energy efficiency and meet the rigorous standards of the LEED-EB O&M Program."
To read more, download the article at left...
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Moving
From Facility Manager to FM Consultant
May 2009 Building Operating Management Magazine
By Greg Zimmerman, Executive Editor
When Craig Sheehy left property management
the first time back in 1995, he thought he had a million-dollar
idea. “I opened an indoor roller hockey arena,”
he says. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. “I
lost every dime I had.”
So, when Sheehy decided to leave his property management gig
again to start a consulting company in 2007, even with a full
head of career and credibility steam, he was more than a little
nervous. Sheehy had made a name for himself as director of
property management at Thomas Properties Group by successfully
managing the LEED for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB) Platinum
certification of the Joe Serna Jr./CalEPA building in Sacramento.
But sensing the opportunity to take his expertise independent,
he crossed his fingers, put in his two weeks notice, and started
Envision Realty Services to help large organizations achieve
LEED-EB certification on their facilities.
The idea of starting a consulting business is a nerve-wracking
proposition for most facility executives. There’s certainly
no guarantee of success, and not every facility professional
is cut out to be an FM consultant. As the stories and experience
of the following FM consultants show, there are many questions
facility professionals should ask themselves before making
the leap, and many steps facility executives can take to increase
the chances of a successful business.
A Journey, Not A Destination
Many paths lead into the consulting field. There are those
like Sheehy who sense an opportunity, both financially and
from a career momentum standpoint, and decide to make the
leap. There are those near the ends of their careers who want
to semi-retire, but still keep a toe in the FM water. And,
perhaps, most commonly, there are those whose job has been
a victim of downsizing and who are not exactly thrilled by
the idea of searching for another position in the corporate
world.
The idea of starting a new company shouldn’t be seen
as a sort of parachute in case of a layoff. Success depends
on forethought and preparation, which will help smooth the
transition, especially if the job loss was unexpected.
Consider the story of Bob Cottrell. Cottrell had been working
as the associate vice president of facilities at the New York
Board of Trade when the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001
forced the organization, which had been housed in the World
Trade Center, to take up residence at a disaster recovery
site. As Cottrell worked on getting the organization up and
running again, which included building a new permanent trading
floor, he was informed that when the few projects he was working
on were completed, he’d be let go. But if he stayed
on to finish the projects, he’d be given a nice severance
package.
“So I started looking for jobs, but couldn’t find
anything I was interested in,” he says. And that’s
when he began considering his own consulting company. In July
2003, Facilities Management Partners was born. Cottrell says
knowing he’d be out of work at the end of the projects
helped him make arrangements for the transition into life
after a regular paycheck.
Diane MacKnight, president of MacKnight Associates, also recommends
some sort of transition period, if at all possible, to smooth
the potentially bumpy road between the corporate world and
the consulting world. MacKnight spent 17 years working her
way up to vice president of facilities at Gannett Company,
leaving in 2003 to take a position at Trammell Crow in the
company’s facility management outsourcing group. She
worked there for 15 months, before her position was eliminated.
MacKnight says that in those 15 months she took great strides
toward her ultimate goal of being a consultant.
“I was really encouraged to run my department like a
business unit,” she says. “This was a fantastic
experience for going into consulting. When I took that job,
I always knew consulting would be the next step, and without
my exposure to the sales process and the experience of having
to convince clients we could bring value to their operations,
I would have been ill-prepared to launch MacKnight Associates.”
General business skills may seem like minor things compared
with the value of knowledge about facilities, project management,
and operations and maintenance, but if you don’t like
public speaking, or aren’t good at communicating in
writing, or rely on your administrative assistant to tell
you where to be and when, then running your own company will
be a struggle — at least at first.
“It takes a good year to get your hands around being
an entrepreneur,” says Greg Donato, president of Facilitate
Consulting, a firm he founded in 2006 after 42 years in facilities
at Scholastic, Inc. “When you’re an entrepreneur,
you’re doing everything yourself. You have to be well-organized.
You have to have the drive.”
Many facility professionals, especially ones who rose through
the ranks on the strength of their engineering, architecture
or other technical backgrounds, may shudder at the idea of
having to sell themselves and their services. But salesmanship
is a critical skill.
“I had lots of sales people calling me over the years,”
says Cottrell. “But I had ignored them or treated them
not so well. I realized I had to eat a little crow, because
I knew my biggest problem would be the sales part.”
Cottrell says that he tried cold-calling for the first two
years in business, but he hated it so much that he ended up
hiring someone to help him. “If it’s hot, based
on a referral, I can handle it easily,” he says.
As Cottrell suggests, in a perfect world, the business just
flows in on its own based on the network you’ve spent
your whole career cultivating. Sheehy, for instance, had several
leads in place when he began consulting from his jet-setting
around the country to present about the LEED-EB Platinum certification
he’d worked on. Most facility professionals aren’t
that lucky and will be required to do marketing on their own.
MacKnight says when she started her company, she took three
facility consultants out to dinner and just listened to them
talk — about everything from how to create an effective
Web site to how to close a sale.
The point is, never is it more important to leverage your
network than when you first go into consulting. That’s
because your former colleagues are now your potential customers.
“Stay connected to past as well as new people in the
industry,” says Kit Tuveson, an IFMA Fellow and founder
of Tuveson and Associates, a firm he started at the end of
his corporate FM career in 2007 to stay engaged. “If
you’re going to be a consultant, you need to send out
a lot more Christmas cards.”
It’s critically important to stay active in industry
groups like IFMA and BOMA to make yourself as visible as possible,
say the experts. “The FM industry is lucky,” says
Sheehy. “We have such an unbelievable network of organizations
and people to draw from. You have to use them.”
Defining Your Business
One of the other advantages to maintaining a dependable network
of facility friends — especially other consultants who
are ostensibly the competition — is that work can flow
back and forth (perhaps on a subcontract basis) between consulting
companies if a project falls outside your sweet spot. But
that assumes you’ve specifically defined what kind of
work you’re willing and able to do.
There are facility consulting businesses that can do everything
from project management to development. And then there are
those that have a particular niche. When starting out, you
just have to ask yourself what you are willing to do and how
available the work will be.
“You can’t assume you’re going to consult
in the same industry you worked in,” says MacKnight.
“When you start your business, really be open to opportunities.
You can’t be a one-trick pony.”
For instance, Donato says that his vision for his company
was to be a “one-stop shop for organizations that don’t
have a facilities department.” He expected that with
a broker’s license he could do everything from negotiating
a deal for space to finding an architect to bringing in water
coolers. Donato says that, as it’s turned out, because
of the down economy (see “The Downturn: Consulting in
a Recession” on page 22), the brokerage piece of his
business is what has helped him survive where many other facility
consultants may be struggling.
Similarly, Carol Farren, who started Facility Management World
Wide nearly 22 years ago, thought she’d be specializing
in relocation and renovation. But that soon changed.
“What happened very quickly was that I was asked to
do a consulting study,” she says. “I hadn’t
really considered being a consultant until then. But that
experience opened my eyes. I could talk to companies about
how they operate facilities. What is it that could save them
money and make them more efficient? We will save you our fee
and more just by driving efficiency.”
But don’t give in to the temptation to take on contracts
that require expertise you don’t have.
“It’s really important to remember that if you
can’t figure out how to add value, then you should skip
it,” says MacKnight. “I’ve said no to work
that wasn’t in my sweet spot. It’s critical to
shut up and listen to the client.”
Listening closely has another advantage: It helps you see
whether you and the potential client will form a good partnership.
In addition to making sure you understand the work in detail,
examine a potential client’s business model and corporate
culture very carefully. Almost every consultant has a story
about a nightmare client — and in many cases there were
early signs that trouble lay ahead. Horror stories abound:
Well-meaning clients that went out of business and didn’t
pay their bills. Well-meaning clients that did pay but were
more trouble than worth because of their too-detailed oversight.
Dishonest clients that simply knocked $5,000 or so off a bill
because they knew the consultant wouldn’t be willing
to take the time to go to small claims court.
When work isn’t a good match for a consultant, there’s
always the opportunity to garner a favor and pass the client
on to a colleague. In the short term, it may be difficult
to see a competitor take the business, even if on a subcontract
basis, but in the long term, that strategy works out best
for everyone involved.
Rewarding Successes
Given the uncertainties involved, why would anyone who has
a job give it up to become a consultant? Greater financial
benefit is certainly one reason. “All the people I know
who are financially successful own their own business,”
says Cottrell.
But financial gain is just one benefit. Consultants who have
been in business for several years report many other advantages,
such as freedom, flexibility, variety and challenge.
“You don’t have hot/cold calls anymore,”
says Cottrell. “You don’t have to deal with minutiae,
like kids in the mailroom calling in sick. You don’t
have to work for a boss, and you get to meet and work with
lots of nice people.”
Those non-financial benefits appealed to MacKnight as well.
“I knew that the work would be rewarding and a good
opportunity to use all my knowledge and skills,” she
says. One challenge of in-house work is that even on a good
day, veteran facility executives will only use a fraction
of their skills, she says. “It’s not quite as
intellectually challenging.”
Sheehy agrees: “We trained as FMs for so many years,
but we never get to fully use our expertise,” he says.
“I get to sell. I get to talk to CEOs, but I also get
to get my hands dirty. We get to use all the tools we learned.”
Copyright © 1995-2009 Trade
Press
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PRESS
RELEASE:
Pershing
Point Earns Leed® Certified Certification For An Existing
Building
Jennifer Benator 404.923.1394, Jennifer.Benator@cbre.com
Pam Barnett 213 683 4368, pbarnett@cbreinvestors.com
ATLANTA – June __ – Pershing
Point, located at 1375 Peachtree Street NE in Atlanta, has
been awarded the LEED® Certified certification for an
Existing Building: Operations & Maintenance from the United
States Green Building Council (USGBC). LEED, which stands
for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a leading-edge
rating system certifying the greenest performing buildings
in the world and a nationally accepted benchmark for building
sustainability. Pershing Point, which is one of the first
buildings in Atlanta to be certified through the LEED EB O&M
program, is owned by the California State Teachers’
Retirement System (CalSTRS) and managed by CB Richard Ellis.
Working with CalSTRS’ investment adviser CBRE Investors
and with Envision Realty Services, CBRE transformed the building
using their shared knowledge of sustainable practices and
applying CBRE’s Standards of Sustainability. They introduced
numerous eco-friendly measures that contributed to the certification,
including water-conservation fixtures, lighting retrofits
and installation of occupancy sensors as part of the energy
management system to reduce power consumption, a comprehensive
recycling program, and use of green cleaning procedures and
supplies. Support from the building’s owner and the
cooperation of the building’s vendors played an important
role in the transformation.
"We feel it is very important to have an environmentally
sound building to reduce the amount of material going to landfills
that may be re-used in the building environment and to ensure
that future generations will have an environmentally friendly
world in which to live,” said Jason Wicks of CBRE’s
Asset Services Division and Manager at Pershing Point. “Our
building upgrades help us to achieve these goals. All of the
changes have been made to ensure that our tenants remain comfortable
in their work environment physically, financially and environmentally."
Pershing Point Plaza is located at the intersection of Peachtree
Street and 17th Street in the heart of the Midtown submarket.
Completely renovated in early 2001, Pershing Point is a beautiful
seven-story, Class A multi-tenant office building comprising
410,057 rsf. The previous two buildings are now connected
(North Tower and South Tower) with a three-story atrium at
the front and center of the adjoining buildings to provide
a single address and efficiently designed contiguous floor
plates. More information is available at www.pershingpointplaza.com.
About CB Richard Ellis Investors
CB Richard Ellis Investors is a global real estate investment
management firm with $36 billion in assets under management*
as of March 31, 2009. The firm sponsors investment programs
across the risk/return spectrum for investors worldwide.
CB Richard Ellis Investors is an independently operated affiliate
of CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBG), and harnesses
the research, investment sourcing and other resources of the
world’s premier, full-service commercial real estate
services company for the benefit of its investors. CB Richard
Ellis has approximately 30,000 employees (excluding affiliates)
in more than 300 offices (excluding affiliates) worldwide.
For more information about CB Richard Ellis Investors, please
visit www.cbreinvestors.com.
* Assets under management (AUM) generally refers to the properties
and other assets with respect to which we and our global affiliates
provide (or participate in) oversight, investment management
services and other advice. Our AUM is intended principally
to reflect the extent of our presence in the global real estate
market, and our calculation of AUM may differ from the calculation
of other asset managers.
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PRESS
RELEASE:
Accenture Tower Earns
Leed® Silver Certification For An Existing Building
Cris Gerster 612.336.4314, cris.gerster@cbre.com
Pam Barnett 213 683 4368, pbarnett@cbreinvestors.com
Eco-friendly measures include comprehensive
recycling program, leadership in local Bird Safe program and
resource-saving system upgrades
MINNEAPOLIS – (June ____, 2009) Accenture Tower at Metropolitan
Centre, located at 333 South Seventh Street in the heart of
downtown Minneapolis, has been awarded the LEED® Silver
certification for an Existing Building: Operations & Maintenance
from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). LEED,
which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design,
is a leading-edge rating system certifying the greenest performing
buildings in the world and a nationally accepted benchmark
for building sustainability. Accenture Tower, which is owned
by the California State Teachers’ Retirement System
(CalSTRS) and managed by CB Richard Ellis, is the first multi-tenant
building in Minneapolis to earn the LEED EB O&M designation.
Working with CalSTRS’ investment adviser CBRE Investors
and with Envision Realty Services to transform the buildings
using their shared knowledge of sustainable practices and
applying CBRE’s Standards of Sustainability, CBRE has
introduced numerous eco-friendly measures in the building
that contributed to the certification. From a recycling standpoint,
they offer mixed materials recycling in which paper, bottles
and cans are dropped in the same bins to make it easier and
more convenient for people to recycle. They also recycle old
food from the restaurant to a pig farmer and have been able
to recycle a notable 70 percent of the waste created when
remodeling by working with a demolition recycler.
Additionally, Accenture Tower was one of the first buildings
to participate in the local “Bird Safe-Lights Out”
program, turning building lights out at midnight to protect
migrating birds, and the building’s green cleaning program
is a model for others in Minneapolis because of the chemicals
and procedures used. Other measures include water-saving fixtures,
such as sprinklers with rain sensors, improved air quality
systems, procedures to handle hazardous waste, and plentiful
bike racks to encourage alternate transportation.
“While it is challenging to make changes when you have
to consider and address the needs of multiple tenants, reaching
our sustainability goals was an important issue,” said
Bob Traeger, of CBRE’s Asset Services Division and General
Manager at Accenture Tower. “Support from the tenants,
as well as the building’s owner, and the cooperation
of the building’s vendors played an important role in
the transformation. And many of the things we have done are
low cost or even no cost improvements that make a big difference.”
Accenture Tower, which has been Energy Star-compliant for
the past eight years, is a 31-story, office project completed
in 1987 and consisting of 621,193 rentable square feet. The
landscaped courtyard provides a picturesque park-like setting
from both inside and outside the building. Accenture Tower
has an underground four-level parking garage and is connected
via skyway to the 701 Building and the Campbell Mithun Tower.
More information is available at www.accenturetower.com.
About CB Richard Ellis Investors
CB Richard Ellis Investors is a global real estate investment
management firm with $36 billion in assets under management*
as of March 31, 2009. The firm sponsors investment programs
across the risk/return spectrum for investors worldwide.
CB Richard Ellis Investors is an independently operated affiliate
of CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBG), and harnesses
the research, investment sourcing and other resources of the
world’s premier, full-service commercial real estate
services company for the benefit of its investors. CB Richard
Ellis has approximately 30,000 employees (excluding affiliates)
in more than 300 offices (excluding affiliates) worldwide.
For more information about CB Richard Ellis Investors, please
visit www.cbreinvestors.com.
* Assets under management (AUM) generally refers to the properties
and other assets with respect to which we and our global affiliates
provide (or participate in) oversight, investment management
services and other advice. Our AUM is intended principally
to reflect the extent of our presence in the global real estate
market, and our calculation of AUM may differ from the calculation
of other asset managers.
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