The Realcomm/BOMA Technology Survey was broken down into two main categories.
from Realcomm Advisory, September 20, 2006
"Solutions for your Company/Business
When asked which technologies respondents found indispensable and which they found counter-productive, the responses were quite contradictory.
Many said that e-mail was indispensable, while others reported that the volume of e-mail was out of control and that it decreases productivity.
Many rated their Blackberry as critical to their business while others reported them as distracting and providing information overload. These responses are indicative of the conflicting feelings commercial real estate professional have towards technologies that have the ability to make our lives both more efficient and more complicated.
Some of the results were not surprising. Wireless is hot! Cell phones continue to be an essential business tool, with 67% of respondents saying they expect cell phone use to increase over the next two years, and 36% listing cell phones as an indispensable technology. Although from what we have seen in the industry, most commercial office buildings are not yet equipped to support wireless communications indoors.
Landline phone use is decreasing, with only 7% expecting to use them more and 24% expecting to use them less. These results clearly support the global trend of increased dependency on mobile, wireless technologies and less on fixed hardwire communications.
What are the biggest challenges faced in saving time and working efficiently?
(1) Time management
(2) Document management
(3) Internal administrative processes
Various software and technology solutions respondents would use more if they knew more about them:
39% Document Management
34% Space Management
29% Lease Automation
In terms of business solutions for commercial real estate, the most used software and technology applications include:
87% Accounts Receivable/Payable
70% Work Order Processing
61% Property Management Software
55% Lease Administration
These results show that real estate companies are integrating technology in the areas that traditionally have broad applications among many different industries, such as accounting and work order processing -- and that they are also beginning to adopt newer solutions specifically designed for commercial real estate applications, such as property management and leasing software.
In terms of general business solutions, Intranet sites (75%) and contact management software (44%) were listed as primary solutions by respondents, while instant messenger services (20%), video conferencing
(17%) and Internet chat rooms (2%) were listed as business solutions with little or no usage.
Solutions for your Building
Not surprisingly, 86% reported having Internet connectivity of T1 or higher, clearly supporting the increased dependency on high-speed broadband over the last 5-10 years. Perhaps the most astonishing statistic in the entire survey, however, was that 52% of respondents said their building does not have a web site. Most businesses today cannot operate - that is, market, sell, manage, or maintain clients - without a robust web site. Perhaps this indicates that there is a very real need for more education on web-based marketing and business solutions for commercial properties. In other building technology, only 16% said they have interactive touch-screen directories, and a mere 4% have digital signage.
The implementation of technologies for buildings seemed to lag behind internal technologies for business - however, 41% of respondents listed don't know what solutions are available, and 26% listed don't understand the solutions that are available as key challenges in implementing new technologies for their buildings.
But it seems that the number one hurdle in implementing new technologies has little to do with tech know-how, knowledge of available products, or time constraints. 72% of respondents listed funding constraints as the biggest challenge in implementing new technologies. While technology is supposed to help decrease operating expenses and increase productivity, sometimes that initial investment is still getting bumped off the budget. Well-defined ROI models and successful case studies of technology improvements within the commercial real estate industry are needed to overcome the apparent financial obstacles.
One interesting revelation regarding budgeting and purchasing was that the Chief Information Officer or Chief Technology Officer was the second highest response in terms of who is responsible for making decisions on purchasing new technologies, at 20%. Building owners still ranked at the top at 24%, with Property Managers ranking third at 19%. But this clearly supports the growing trend of the decision-making triangle between the owner, property manager, and now the IT department in using technology to help operate and manage our buildings." for more informaion see ; www.houstonrealtyadvisors.com
or www.houstonrealtyadvisors.net
or www.houstonrealtyadvisor.com
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
Real Estate Domain Names For Sale?
- The online realm for buying, selling and leasing commercial space holds tremendous potential, says John Suryan, president of Seattle-based property listing service OfficeSpace.com.
“Most current commercial Web sites list content for the benefit of the real estate community, the supply side of the business. Very little is geared toward tenants, the demand side of the business — unlike residential, where it is reversed,” Suryan says. “Commercial has always lagged residential when it comes to using the Internet to market properties for sale and particularly for lease.”
About three-fourths of all residential property sales last year were initiated by an Internet search. Steve Condrey, vice president of sales and marketing at office leasing and sales site BuildingSearch.com, believes commercial real estate will follow suit. BuildingSearch.com has been building its database for about a year. The domain name was registered 10 years ago. But the commercial sector is slowly firming up its position on the Web as competition increases for domain names oriented toward that business. OfficeSpace.com is among the pioneers in e-commerce for the commercial real estate business. Launched in 1996, OfficeSpace.com is a free-of-charge listing service for more than 1 billion sq. ft. of property in seven U.S. markets and São Paulo, Brazil.
OfficeSpace.com makes money primarily by highlighting certain listings, offering memberships to real estate agents and selling market intelligence like pending corporate relocations. The site receives about 1.5 million hits a month and is set to grow next year to accommodate listings from anywhere in the U.S.
BuildingSearch.com, a competitor of OfficeSpace.com, currently features about 30,000 listings in California and will raise venture capital in the next four months to fuel a nationwide expansion, Condrey says. Advisers and investors include three former or current executives from Colliers International Inc. The Morgan Hill, Calif.-based outfit charges $25 a month to search its site, and $45 a month to highlight certain property listings as well as to rallow searches. For now, two publicly traded companies — CoStar Group Inc. (NYSE: GSCP) and LoopNet Inc. (NYSE: LOOP) — are the behemoths of Web-based commercial property listings. And more newcomers in the vein of BuildingSearch.com appear to be on the Web horizon.
Nonetheless, CoStar is unfazed. Andrew Florance, president and CEO of CoStar, recently told financial analysts that no emerging competitors have shown up on the company’s radar screen.
For its part, LoopNet keeps chugging along, consistently registering year-over-year growth of about 30%. To bolster its growth, LoopNet in August bought New York-based online commercial real estate listing service CityFeet.com for $18 million. LoopNet says it may snap up other small players like venture capital-backed CityFeet.com.
New York-based SmallBizRealty Inc. is fueling the growth of some of the small players. The company recently marketed for sale more than 160 generic domain names aimed at commercial real estate brokers, developers, owners, REITs and related businesses. Jeffrey A. Landers, founder and president, says his company has been buying the names since 1998 to ward off potential rivals. SmallBizRealty operates Offices2share.com, an online marketplace for office space.
As of early October, three names in SmallBizRealty’s domain portfolio had been sold: Subleases.com, OfficeSpaceForLease.com and RentAnOffice.com. Still up for grabs are names like FindAnOffice.com, MedicalOfficeSpace.com and OfficeSpaceListings.com.
“Purchasing these domain names is similar to making a real estate deal,” Lander says. “There is an initial investment, but if the domain names bring in new clients, there will be a significant return on that investment.”
Andrew Allemann, editor of the Domain Name Wire news site, says a desirable domain name typically costs a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Larger sums are being paid for generic names with .com extensions, as Web users are more apt to type in .com than .net, .biz or other, less customary extensions.
Recently, realestateinvestor.com fetched $500, while real-estateinvestor.com went for nearly $500 and realestateinvestmentsolutions.com sold for $100, reports domain name broker Sedo.com LLC. Six- and seven-figure domain name deals are rare for any industry on the Web.
“If you had the exact term that defines a whole category — like OfficeLeasing.com — that could easily be a six-figure sale,” says Ron Jackson, editor of trade magazine Domain Name Journal. “If you had one of the thousands of variations on the office leasing theme, it would be worth much less.”
Landers says he sees a “land grab” taking place for generic commercial real estate domain names like the ones in his portfolio — those not tied to a particular company or brand.
“I’m looking at these names as real estate themselves,” Landers says. “I consider these names unique and hard to replicate. These names are valuable.” - For more information contact www.houstonrealtyadvisors.com or www.houstonrealtyadvisors.net or www.houstonrealtyadvisor.com
Friday, October 5, 2007
New Business Rent or Own?
Two of the most common problems commercial real estate professionals experience when dealing with small businesses are:
(1) An unrealistic time frames, and
(2) Lack of capital.
from Commercial Investment Real Estate, March-April 2006
"In 2004, 99.9% of approximately 24.7 million U.S. businesses had fewer than 500 employees, qualifying as small businesses, according to estimates from the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy.
This growing sector presents numerous new business opportunities.
Small-business owners only face decisions about space needs once every 3 to 10 years. This lack of experience and market knowledge means that small-business owners need as much guidance as possible from commercial real estate professionals when making their property decisions.
Making Decisions
One of the most important decisions the small-business owner will make:
whether to rent or own property. While full-scale lease-or-buy analyses are complicated and detailed, there are some preliminary steps commercial real estate professionals can take with clients. The decision to lease or own cannot be made until the business stage of development is determined. Strategy is driven mostly by whether the tenant is in a growth phase, characterized by expansion options and/or a relatively short-term lease, or a mature phase, characterized by a long-term lease and possible candidacy for owning. Buying too big of a building or leasing too much space for too long of a term has been the death of many small businesses.
While condominiums are a good option for some small companies, others might find that building their own property seems like the best choice.
Some small businesses] tend to want to leave a legacy. They want to construct a facility that will perhaps turn into an investment for a son, daughter, or grandchild. Sometimes it's not much of a choice, if a tenant cannot get financing to buy its own property.
Negotiating Leases
While buying or building potentially can provide future security for a small business, leasing has advantages as well. Renting rather than owning a property allows small businesses more flexibility as they grow.
Small-business owners are entrepreneurs who always have visions of growth. The challenge is finding space, negotiating a lease, and finding a building that has expansion capabilities and that can accommodate their vision.
When the right rental space has been located, more choices need to be made regarding the lease type and terms. More often than in the case of larger companies, small-business owners want endless expansion, renewal, and relocation rights. Many start-up companies are fairly conservative with leasing space. This is due to a certain degree of financial uncertainty and growth plans. This means it is important to negotiate for expansion options and contraction clauses in the leases."
Another option, which can be espe-cially beneficial for start-up businesses, are step-up leases. The tenant pays a lower amount of rent in the first portion of the lease with the rent increasing over the latter portion of the lease. This helps keep the initial costs low, helping with potential cash flow issues.
It is important to consider small businesses' long-term goals as well.
Sometimes rental rates rise above what tenants can afford to pay and companies that once had been thriving are forced to close down." for more information see www.houstonrealtyadvisors.net or www.houstonrealtyadvisor.com
(1) An unrealistic time frames, and
(2) Lack of capital.
from Commercial Investment Real Estate, March-April 2006
"In 2004, 99.9% of approximately 24.7 million U.S. businesses had fewer than 500 employees, qualifying as small businesses, according to estimates from the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy.
This growing sector presents numerous new business opportunities.
Small-business owners only face decisions about space needs once every 3 to 10 years. This lack of experience and market knowledge means that small-business owners need as much guidance as possible from commercial real estate professionals when making their property decisions.
Making Decisions
One of the most important decisions the small-business owner will make:
whether to rent or own property. While full-scale lease-or-buy analyses are complicated and detailed, there are some preliminary steps commercial real estate professionals can take with clients. The decision to lease or own cannot be made until the business stage of development is determined. Strategy is driven mostly by whether the tenant is in a growth phase, characterized by expansion options and/or a relatively short-term lease, or a mature phase, characterized by a long-term lease and possible candidacy for owning. Buying too big of a building or leasing too much space for too long of a term has been the death of many small businesses.
While condominiums are a good option for some small companies, others might find that building their own property seems like the best choice.
Some small businesses] tend to want to leave a legacy. They want to construct a facility that will perhaps turn into an investment for a son, daughter, or grandchild. Sometimes it's not much of a choice, if a tenant cannot get financing to buy its own property.
Negotiating Leases
While buying or building potentially can provide future security for a small business, leasing has advantages as well. Renting rather than owning a property allows small businesses more flexibility as they grow.
Small-business owners are entrepreneurs who always have visions of growth. The challenge is finding space, negotiating a lease, and finding a building that has expansion capabilities and that can accommodate their vision.
When the right rental space has been located, more choices need to be made regarding the lease type and terms. More often than in the case of larger companies, small-business owners want endless expansion, renewal, and relocation rights. Many start-up companies are fairly conservative with leasing space. This is due to a certain degree of financial uncertainty and growth plans. This means it is important to negotiate for expansion options and contraction clauses in the leases."
Another option, which can be espe-cially beneficial for start-up businesses, are step-up leases. The tenant pays a lower amount of rent in the first portion of the lease with the rent increasing over the latter portion of the lease. This helps keep the initial costs low, helping with potential cash flow issues.
It is important to consider small businesses' long-term goals as well.
Sometimes rental rates rise above what tenants can afford to pay and companies that once had been thriving are forced to close down." for more information see www.houstonrealtyadvisors.net or www.houstonrealtyadvisor.com
Ground Leases
Owners and developers unearth opportunities through creative land leases.
from Commercial Investment Real Estate, May-June 2006
"Commercial real estate developers and investors often favor total fee ownership of income property. The propensity to own - and the emotions attached to it - sometimes can result in misguided decisions and strategies and lost opportunities. Relinquishing ownership of income property is really a question of when, not if.
Once developers move beyond the notion of ownership as an investment goal, new opportunities that may not have been visible before, such as ground leases, become apparent. In its most basic form, a ground lease, or land lease, separates the ownership of land from the ownership of the improvements on the land, such as an office building or a shopping center. The landowner leases the land to the developer of the improvements, who pays rent for use of the land. Typically ground leases are long term and include set rent escalations, foreclosure rights should the lessee default, and a reversionary right, which means improvements on the property revert to the landowner at the end of the lease term. While such lease terms do not particularly favor developers, ground leases offer some distinct advantages.
The two most prevalent types of ground leases are subordinated and unsubordinated. Each provides benefits that can enhance the developer's yield and turn dismal or modest returns into more attractive and risk-mitigated ventures. They also give developers the opportunity to involve multiple partners without a formal partnership agreement.
Ground leases transfer control - not ownership - of a property and for the landowners are considered one of the most secure forms of real estate investment. But landowners are still investors and may be open to developers who offer them a stake in the improvements erected on their land.
Lease Structures
In a subordinated ground lease, the landowner offers the land as collateral for the developer's mortgage, giving the landowner a significant stake in the development risk. The subordinated ground lessor is considered a secondary lender with junior rights set behind the primary lender, usually a bank or other financial institution.
Normally the ground lessor has a future claim on the improvements, as most ground leases require improvements to the land to revert to landowners at the end of the lease. As such, ground lessors consider the downstream value of the improvements in establishing a rental rate. On the other hand, a ground lease that provides for the removal of any improvements at the end of the lease, such as relocatable metal buildings, modulars, portable plants, or parking lot appurtenances, would factor that eventuality into the rate as well.
The subordinated ground lease rental rate usually is a few percentage points above long-term permanent loan rates applied to the land value, which would correctly calibrate the risk-reward equation, including the risk of foreclosure, for the ground lessor.
The unsubordinated ground lease offers the landowner a more desirable role, comparable to that of the primary lender. This makes long-term permanent conventional financing more challenging for the developer, since the lender must assume the risk of lease termination and default.
However, due to the senior position of the unsubordinated ground lessor, the ground lease rate can be lower and therefore much more attractive for the developer. The permanent lender recognizes the ground lease payments as an annual expense that will be factored into its loan underwriting. In total, the cash required in the deal by the developer is reduced while his yield is increased.
In both cases, the developer's requirement for cash in the deal is reduced because of the value that the landowner brings to the deal. The reduction in cash usually required causes the investment yield to increase when the income stream is extended into the future. The value of the future cash stream will be determined by a threshold discount rate, resource availability, and underlying assumptions - the same general market and economic model assumptions that apply to fee-simple land ownership deals.
Other considerations include the length of the remaining lease term, reversion covenants, and extension and renewal rights and options.
Occasionally the ground lessor will participate in the cash flows by applying a lease rate as a percentage of the income that the rental property produces. This strategy can have the positive effect of averting a monetary default in the event of a dark project. It also has the positive effect of mitigating the risk that a first mortgage lender perceives if the lease is unsubordinated. For example, if prevailing long-term interest rates are 6%, a comparable subordinated ground rental rate might be 8%, whereas an unsubordinated lease might be priced at par or 6%.
Ground Lease Benefits
The potential to form a joint venture with a building developer can be attractive to the primary ground lessor. The yield values are enhanced by the security of the future improvements. Provisions against wasting the property, requirements to maintain the improvements, cure and notice rights, certain reasonable approval conditions, and the ubiquitous hazardous materials covenants are standard.
Clearly, an unsubordinated lease presents possibilities that offer an alternative investment vehicle that provides security to patient investors and can be traded, sold, or transferred in creative ways. For example, tax-deferred 1031 strategies are possible by trading into an income investment as a sandwich ground lessee-ground sublessor. The usual threshold is that the lease term be greater than 25 years. Since these instruments can take on the color of a security, real estate professionals who enter into these deals should carefully document all aspects of the transaction and seek advice from qualified securities professionals.
In addition, opportunities exist in some municipal ground lease situations wherein under certain conditions, property taxes are completely or virtually eliminated. Likewise other tax benefits accrue to these sanctuaries because of the reversionary character of building improvements and the incentive-rewarding jobs creation. These areas of investment can offer a spectacular advantage over neighboring competing properties in pricing and yield.
Lease term and length influence the acceptability of ground lease deals.
The current climate is cautionary because of the parochial need to own; however, institutional managers realize that it is all factored into the risk and yield and accept the challenge with appropriate lease drafting and terms that are favorable to the asset managers' objectives. The environment is changing as the pressure for yield performance and risk mitigation goes begging. The challenge is pioneering in an area where heretofore only the creative and adventurous have explored." For more information see: www.houstonrealtyadvisors.net or
www. houstonrealtyadvisor.com
from Commercial Investment Real Estate, May-June 2006
"Commercial real estate developers and investors often favor total fee ownership of income property. The propensity to own - and the emotions attached to it - sometimes can result in misguided decisions and strategies and lost opportunities. Relinquishing ownership of income property is really a question of when, not if.
Once developers move beyond the notion of ownership as an investment goal, new opportunities that may not have been visible before, such as ground leases, become apparent. In its most basic form, a ground lease, or land lease, separates the ownership of land from the ownership of the improvements on the land, such as an office building or a shopping center. The landowner leases the land to the developer of the improvements, who pays rent for use of the land. Typically ground leases are long term and include set rent escalations, foreclosure rights should the lessee default, and a reversionary right, which means improvements on the property revert to the landowner at the end of the lease term. While such lease terms do not particularly favor developers, ground leases offer some distinct advantages.
The two most prevalent types of ground leases are subordinated and unsubordinated. Each provides benefits that can enhance the developer's yield and turn dismal or modest returns into more attractive and risk-mitigated ventures. They also give developers the opportunity to involve multiple partners without a formal partnership agreement.
Ground leases transfer control - not ownership - of a property and for the landowners are considered one of the most secure forms of real estate investment. But landowners are still investors and may be open to developers who offer them a stake in the improvements erected on their land.
Lease Structures
In a subordinated ground lease, the landowner offers the land as collateral for the developer's mortgage, giving the landowner a significant stake in the development risk. The subordinated ground lessor is considered a secondary lender with junior rights set behind the primary lender, usually a bank or other financial institution.
Normally the ground lessor has a future claim on the improvements, as most ground leases require improvements to the land to revert to landowners at the end of the lease. As such, ground lessors consider the downstream value of the improvements in establishing a rental rate. On the other hand, a ground lease that provides for the removal of any improvements at the end of the lease, such as relocatable metal buildings, modulars, portable plants, or parking lot appurtenances, would factor that eventuality into the rate as well.
The subordinated ground lease rental rate usually is a few percentage points above long-term permanent loan rates applied to the land value, which would correctly calibrate the risk-reward equation, including the risk of foreclosure, for the ground lessor.
The unsubordinated ground lease offers the landowner a more desirable role, comparable to that of the primary lender. This makes long-term permanent conventional financing more challenging for the developer, since the lender must assume the risk of lease termination and default.
However, due to the senior position of the unsubordinated ground lessor, the ground lease rate can be lower and therefore much more attractive for the developer. The permanent lender recognizes the ground lease payments as an annual expense that will be factored into its loan underwriting. In total, the cash required in the deal by the developer is reduced while his yield is increased.
In both cases, the developer's requirement for cash in the deal is reduced because of the value that the landowner brings to the deal. The reduction in cash usually required causes the investment yield to increase when the income stream is extended into the future. The value of the future cash stream will be determined by a threshold discount rate, resource availability, and underlying assumptions - the same general market and economic model assumptions that apply to fee-simple land ownership deals.
Other considerations include the length of the remaining lease term, reversion covenants, and extension and renewal rights and options.
Occasionally the ground lessor will participate in the cash flows by applying a lease rate as a percentage of the income that the rental property produces. This strategy can have the positive effect of averting a monetary default in the event of a dark project. It also has the positive effect of mitigating the risk that a first mortgage lender perceives if the lease is unsubordinated. For example, if prevailing long-term interest rates are 6%, a comparable subordinated ground rental rate might be 8%, whereas an unsubordinated lease might be priced at par or 6%.
Ground Lease Benefits
The potential to form a joint venture with a building developer can be attractive to the primary ground lessor. The yield values are enhanced by the security of the future improvements. Provisions against wasting the property, requirements to maintain the improvements, cure and notice rights, certain reasonable approval conditions, and the ubiquitous hazardous materials covenants are standard.
Clearly, an unsubordinated lease presents possibilities that offer an alternative investment vehicle that provides security to patient investors and can be traded, sold, or transferred in creative ways. For example, tax-deferred 1031 strategies are possible by trading into an income investment as a sandwich ground lessee-ground sublessor. The usual threshold is that the lease term be greater than 25 years. Since these instruments can take on the color of a security, real estate professionals who enter into these deals should carefully document all aspects of the transaction and seek advice from qualified securities professionals.
In addition, opportunities exist in some municipal ground lease situations wherein under certain conditions, property taxes are completely or virtually eliminated. Likewise other tax benefits accrue to these sanctuaries because of the reversionary character of building improvements and the incentive-rewarding jobs creation. These areas of investment can offer a spectacular advantage over neighboring competing properties in pricing and yield.
Lease term and length influence the acceptability of ground lease deals.
The current climate is cautionary because of the parochial need to own; however, institutional managers realize that it is all factored into the risk and yield and accept the challenge with appropriate lease drafting and terms that are favorable to the asset managers' objectives. The environment is changing as the pressure for yield performance and risk mitigation goes begging. The challenge is pioneering in an area where heretofore only the creative and adventurous have explored." For more information see: www.houstonrealtyadvisors.net or
www. houstonrealtyadvisor.com
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Intelligent Buildings?
A rating system aims to provide an IQ score for facilities.
from Building Operating Management, September 2006
"Gains in technology have improved functionality and reduced costs for building intelligence.
It has been roughly a quarter of a century since the notion of the intelligent building first appeared on the facility-management horizon.
Back then, the term was used broadly:
An intelligent building was one with high-tech bells and whistles that elevated it above the ranks of the common building. Beneath the surface, however, intelligent building didn't mean anything specific, and often it didn't mean much at all.
More recently — within the past 15 years or so — the notion of building intelligence evolved as some once-futuristic technologies moved into the real world. The term intelligent building began to be applied more narrowly, referring, in general, to a building with automation features that offered better control over various building systems.
Now, building automation systems of all stripes are commonplace, and the notion of the intelligent building has undergone yet another transformation. Discussions about building intelligence extend well beyond building automation to issues such as security, communication, and environmental monitoring and control, and focus as much on how facilities use their technology as whether they possess it. The intelligent building of today not only boasts systems automation and control, but is also able to generate data and share it among systems to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the whole facility.
The intelligent building of today is taking those standalone systems and integrating them.
In an intelligent building as we defined it 15 years ago, you would never see sharing of data between a fire system and a security system.
You might have seen an HVAC building automation system, but it didn't give you the opportunity to turn the HVAC on and off in small sections of the building based on occupancy. Now all of these essential functions can communicate with one another and operate based on information received from a sensor in a room.
Advances in technology have, to a large extent, driven this evolution.
In the past, many buildings operated on closed or proprietary systems that could not communicate with one another. As a result, say experts, building systems are becoming more interoperable and are allowing more facilities to reach the next level of building intelligence. Tremendous amounts of data can be pulled and shared, and communications devices allow sharing between systems and even between buildings.
The reality of building intelligence today is very different from what it was in the past. Now we've got technology that is much better, at costs that have been reduced substantially. And we're looking at quantum leaps forward in the functionality of the systems and in opportunities for linking them together to improve the performance of a building as a whole.
Intelligence matters
Building-intelligence experts have a lot to say about the benefits an intelligent building offers — benefits that contribute to the bottom line.
The benefits are in terms of several different issues:
· Efficiency aspect,
· Cost aspect,
· Environmental aspect,
· Health aspect and
· Security aspect.
From an energy perspective, the efficiency benefits of building intelligence are familiar to many facility executives. To cite one common application, a building that knows when and where it is occupied can limit its own energy use by confining the operation of power-hungry HVAC and lighting systems to the hours and areas of the building they are needed. Sensors that provide occupancy data to HVAC and lighting systems are seeing increasing use for exactly this reason.
Cutting energy use is one environmental benefit of intelligent buildings. In addition, they can improve indoor air quality through continual ventilation adjustments and air-quality monitoring, or maximize day lighting by automating shading systems.
Intelligent security
Experts draw links between building intelligence and security.
A lot of the 9-11 type concerns have fueled discussion about intelligent buildings. Now you have surveillance cameras everywhere, but in intelligent buildings security activities are linked closely with other building functions in ways that enable you to have a much better understanding of whether there may be someone in your building who should not be.
In addition, intelligent buildings' security operation can be more cost-effective — one security guard may be able to keep an eye on security functions, see who is where in the building, lock and unlock doors, and monitor the fire system from a single location, eliminating the need for a group of security personnel making rounds.
In the most intelligent facilities, the moment an employee enters during off-hours, the access control system informs the building management system who has arrived. By accessing tenant data, the building management system can adjust temperature and lighting for the area of the building where that individual works. To further reduce energy consumption and enhance comfort, it can also increase outdoor airflow to that area, or open window shades that had been closed to minimize heat gain. Doors to the area where the employee works can be unlocked automatically while other doors remain locked and elevator security configurations can be changed to allow access to certain floors.
Security cameras can be cued if necessary. And when the employee leaves, the area can return to its secure, low-energy, off-hours state.
What's more, intelligent buildings are more attractive to prospective tenants, and that translates to higher retention rates, higher rental rates and higher occupant satisfaction.
Despite these and other purported benefits, experts say that many facility executives have not yet begun to take full advantage of the opportunities intelligent buildings present. In some cases, that is because existing systems in older buildings do not permit interoperability, and retrofits are not in the budget. When it comes to building intelligence, however, experts say a little bit can go a long way.
A building that has even two of its systems brought together — say access control and HVAC — could be considered intelligent. Does that make it rate a 100 on a scale of 100? No, but it may be very appropriate given that specific building's needs.
A facility's intelligence level can be increased by a series of baby steps — not necessarily a major one-time investment. The move to access control — a card system instead of keys — is one many people are comfortable with, so they can take that step first and then down the road they may take the next step to real energy management. A lot of people don't have confidence in this idea yet or an understanding of how it can help them.
Help is on the way
Facility executives interested in taking steps — be they large or small — toward intelligent building status will soon have access to an important resource. CABA is the Continental Automated Building Association, a not-for-profit industry organization that seeks to encourage the development and understanding off building automation.
CABA commissioned development of a Building Intelligence Quotient (BIQ) — an online rating tool that will enable facility executives at existing facilities, or engineers involved with new construction, to gauge a building's intelligence and identify ways to increase it.
The BIQ is a way to determine how well a specific facility is achieving the goals of an intelligent building. CABA launched the development of BIQ roughly two years ago.
Process of development
BIQ will provide facility executives with a numeric score for a facility based on an analysis of a series of data points related to the building's use, location, size and features. The questionnaire that guides the data-entry process is in the final stages of development; however, it will encompass a long list of issues, including:
* Demographics related to the facility's location, occupancy and use.
* Specifics about building systems, including training and maintenance practices and the extent to which systems are automated and integrated.
* The ease with which new tenants can move in and set up.
* Data-sharing characteristics.
* Information about communications systems like the Internet and intranets.
* Capabilities for tracking and adjusting the indoor environment, including IAQ.
* Capabilities for using technology in emergency procedures.
* Specifics of the elevators and other components.
* Emergency power resources.
Using all this information, the BIQ generates an online report that not only assigns the rating, but also provides recommendations about ways to improve the score.
It is certainly not a replacement for an engineering study, but it is a way to make you aware of issues you may want to address and help you get started addressing them.
The process of evaluating a facility using the BIQ is fairly simple and does not require extensive homework in advance; a sound knowledge of a facility's components and characteristics is all it demands." for more information see www.houstonrealtyadvisors.net or www.houstonrealtyadvisor.com
from Building Operating Management, September 2006
"Gains in technology have improved functionality and reduced costs for building intelligence.
It has been roughly a quarter of a century since the notion of the intelligent building first appeared on the facility-management horizon.
Back then, the term was used broadly:
An intelligent building was one with high-tech bells and whistles that elevated it above the ranks of the common building. Beneath the surface, however, intelligent building didn't mean anything specific, and often it didn't mean much at all.
More recently — within the past 15 years or so — the notion of building intelligence evolved as some once-futuristic technologies moved into the real world. The term intelligent building began to be applied more narrowly, referring, in general, to a building with automation features that offered better control over various building systems.
Now, building automation systems of all stripes are commonplace, and the notion of the intelligent building has undergone yet another transformation. Discussions about building intelligence extend well beyond building automation to issues such as security, communication, and environmental monitoring and control, and focus as much on how facilities use their technology as whether they possess it. The intelligent building of today not only boasts systems automation and control, but is also able to generate data and share it among systems to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the whole facility.
The intelligent building of today is taking those standalone systems and integrating them.
In an intelligent building as we defined it 15 years ago, you would never see sharing of data between a fire system and a security system.
You might have seen an HVAC building automation system, but it didn't give you the opportunity to turn the HVAC on and off in small sections of the building based on occupancy. Now all of these essential functions can communicate with one another and operate based on information received from a sensor in a room.
Advances in technology have, to a large extent, driven this evolution.
In the past, many buildings operated on closed or proprietary systems that could not communicate with one another. As a result, say experts, building systems are becoming more interoperable and are allowing more facilities to reach the next level of building intelligence. Tremendous amounts of data can be pulled and shared, and communications devices allow sharing between systems and even between buildings.
The reality of building intelligence today is very different from what it was in the past. Now we've got technology that is much better, at costs that have been reduced substantially. And we're looking at quantum leaps forward in the functionality of the systems and in opportunities for linking them together to improve the performance of a building as a whole.
Intelligence matters
Building-intelligence experts have a lot to say about the benefits an intelligent building offers — benefits that contribute to the bottom line.
The benefits are in terms of several different issues:
· Efficiency aspect,
· Cost aspect,
· Environmental aspect,
· Health aspect and
· Security aspect.
From an energy perspective, the efficiency benefits of building intelligence are familiar to many facility executives. To cite one common application, a building that knows when and where it is occupied can limit its own energy use by confining the operation of power-hungry HVAC and lighting systems to the hours and areas of the building they are needed. Sensors that provide occupancy data to HVAC and lighting systems are seeing increasing use for exactly this reason.
Cutting energy use is one environmental benefit of intelligent buildings. In addition, they can improve indoor air quality through continual ventilation adjustments and air-quality monitoring, or maximize day lighting by automating shading systems.
Intelligent security
Experts draw links between building intelligence and security.
A lot of the 9-11 type concerns have fueled discussion about intelligent buildings. Now you have surveillance cameras everywhere, but in intelligent buildings security activities are linked closely with other building functions in ways that enable you to have a much better understanding of whether there may be someone in your building who should not be.
In addition, intelligent buildings' security operation can be more cost-effective — one security guard may be able to keep an eye on security functions, see who is where in the building, lock and unlock doors, and monitor the fire system from a single location, eliminating the need for a group of security personnel making rounds.
In the most intelligent facilities, the moment an employee enters during off-hours, the access control system informs the building management system who has arrived. By accessing tenant data, the building management system can adjust temperature and lighting for the area of the building where that individual works. To further reduce energy consumption and enhance comfort, it can also increase outdoor airflow to that area, or open window shades that had been closed to minimize heat gain. Doors to the area where the employee works can be unlocked automatically while other doors remain locked and elevator security configurations can be changed to allow access to certain floors.
Security cameras can be cued if necessary. And when the employee leaves, the area can return to its secure, low-energy, off-hours state.
What's more, intelligent buildings are more attractive to prospective tenants, and that translates to higher retention rates, higher rental rates and higher occupant satisfaction.
Despite these and other purported benefits, experts say that many facility executives have not yet begun to take full advantage of the opportunities intelligent buildings present. In some cases, that is because existing systems in older buildings do not permit interoperability, and retrofits are not in the budget. When it comes to building intelligence, however, experts say a little bit can go a long way.
A building that has even two of its systems brought together — say access control and HVAC — could be considered intelligent. Does that make it rate a 100 on a scale of 100? No, but it may be very appropriate given that specific building's needs.
A facility's intelligence level can be increased by a series of baby steps — not necessarily a major one-time investment. The move to access control — a card system instead of keys — is one many people are comfortable with, so they can take that step first and then down the road they may take the next step to real energy management. A lot of people don't have confidence in this idea yet or an understanding of how it can help them.
Help is on the way
Facility executives interested in taking steps — be they large or small — toward intelligent building status will soon have access to an important resource. CABA is the Continental Automated Building Association, a not-for-profit industry organization that seeks to encourage the development and understanding off building automation.
CABA commissioned development of a Building Intelligence Quotient (BIQ) — an online rating tool that will enable facility executives at existing facilities, or engineers involved with new construction, to gauge a building's intelligence and identify ways to increase it.
The BIQ is a way to determine how well a specific facility is achieving the goals of an intelligent building. CABA launched the development of BIQ roughly two years ago.
Process of development
BIQ will provide facility executives with a numeric score for a facility based on an analysis of a series of data points related to the building's use, location, size and features. The questionnaire that guides the data-entry process is in the final stages of development; however, it will encompass a long list of issues, including:
* Demographics related to the facility's location, occupancy and use.
* Specifics about building systems, including training and maintenance practices and the extent to which systems are automated and integrated.
* The ease with which new tenants can move in and set up.
* Data-sharing characteristics.
* Information about communications systems like the Internet and intranets.
* Capabilities for tracking and adjusting the indoor environment, including IAQ.
* Capabilities for using technology in emergency procedures.
* Specifics of the elevators and other components.
* Emergency power resources.
Using all this information, the BIQ generates an online report that not only assigns the rating, but also provides recommendations about ways to improve the score.
It is certainly not a replacement for an engineering study, but it is a way to make you aware of issues you may want to address and help you get started addressing them.
The process of evaluating a facility using the BIQ is fairly simple and does not require extensive homework in advance; a sound knowledge of a facility's components and characteristics is all it demands." for more information see www.houstonrealtyadvisors.net or www.houstonrealtyadvisor.com
Floteck Industries takes space
Flotek Industries Relocates HQ to 2930 W. Sam Houston
Tenant Takes 15,000 SF at Recently Built Class A Office Building
The Flotek Industries Inc. headquarters will relocate from 7030 Empire Central Drive to 2930 W. Sam Houston Parkway. Flotek leased 15,000 square feet of office space at the 2930 Beltway 8 Center, with plans to move in on December 15, 2007, with a signed five-year lease term. Recently built in 2006, the three-story Class A building totals 45,000 square feet in Houston. Flotek will occupy the entire third floor in which the building is now 100% leased. Flotek is a leading pioneer in marketing of innovative and specialty chemicals, down hole drilling and production equipment, and management of automated bulk material handling, loading and blending facilities. Flotek serves major and independent companies domestically and internationally in the oilfield service industry. Reggie Beavan of Jackson & Cooksey represented the tenant. John Green of MetroNational represented the landlord in-house. For more information see: www.houstonrewaltyadvisors.net or www.houstonrealtyadvisor.com
Tenant Takes 15,000 SF at Recently Built Class A Office Building
The Flotek Industries Inc. headquarters will relocate from 7030 Empire Central Drive to 2930 W. Sam Houston Parkway. Flotek leased 15,000 square feet of office space at the 2930 Beltway 8 Center, with plans to move in on December 15, 2007, with a signed five-year lease term. Recently built in 2006, the three-story Class A building totals 45,000 square feet in Houston. Flotek will occupy the entire third floor in which the building is now 100% leased. Flotek is a leading pioneer in marketing of innovative and specialty chemicals, down hole drilling and production equipment, and management of automated bulk material handling, loading and blending facilities. Flotek serves major and independent companies domestically and internationally in the oilfield service industry. Reggie Beavan of Jackson & Cooksey represented the tenant. John Green of MetroNational represented the landlord in-house. For more information see: www.houstonrewaltyadvisors.net or www.houstonrealtyadvisor.com
Monday, October 1, 2007
Big Sale in Houston's Energy Corridor
Younan Takes Two Westlake Park
Firm Adds Another 377,077-SF Office Property to Houston Portfolio
Younan Properties Inc. completed its acquisition of Two Westlake Park office building at 580 Westlake Park Blvd. in Houston, which brings its Houston's office portfolio to approximately 1.7 million square feet of space. The firm is on track to become a dominant office landlord in Houston. Built in 1982, the 17-story office building totals 377,077 square feet on 5.37 acres and is 11 miles northwest of the Galleria and 16 miles west of downtown Houston. Although the current sales price is undisclosed, the Class A property sold for $43 million back in 2000. Ken Page of Cushman & Wakefield of Houston represented the seller, CMD Realty Investors. Younan Properties represented itself. For more information see www.houstonrealtyadvisors.net or www.houstonrealtyadvisor.com
Firm Adds Another 377,077-SF Office Property to Houston Portfolio
Younan Properties Inc. completed its acquisition of Two Westlake Park office building at 580 Westlake Park Blvd. in Houston, which brings its Houston's office portfolio to approximately 1.7 million square feet of space. The firm is on track to become a dominant office landlord in Houston. Built in 1982, the 17-story office building totals 377,077 square feet on 5.37 acres and is 11 miles northwest of the Galleria and 16 miles west of downtown Houston. Although the current sales price is undisclosed, the Class A property sold for $43 million back in 2000. Ken Page of Cushman & Wakefield of Houston represented the seller, CMD Realty Investors. Younan Properties represented itself. For more information see www.houstonrealtyadvisors.net or www.houstonrealtyadvisor.com
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