 Carter’s 171 17th Street building |
Rutledge Beacham, vice president of property and facility management with Carter & Associates, was compelled to apply for the BOMA 360 Performance Program designation for Carter’s 171 17th Street building in Atlanta, Ga. when he first heard details about the new program. “As soon as I got word of the program, I thought ‘This is a much needed designation in our industry, because nobody else has anything like it.’ This is really a designation for the building to validate quality in operations, management and leasing. There’s nothing like it in the industry.”
In addition to the stamp of excellence the designation imparts on a building, Beacham also applied to the program to get property managers in his company involved. “One of the reasons I chose to participate in it was to motivate other managers in our organization to apply for the program. We’re a very competitive company and this will challenge our managers to get other buildings in our portfolio designated. We actually have two other buildings that are in the process right now, and we’ll keep adding more.”
To make the application process even easier for his managers, Beacham has compiled common company information needed in the application process for every Carter building that applies. “I’ve created a template for each of the sections in the BOMA 360 application that apply to all of our buildings, so that when the managers start the process of applying for their buildings, a third of the process is already done. That way they only have to come up with the information that is specific to their building.”
Beacham found that the benefits of the program far outweighed the time and cost of the application process. “Some people may hesitate as they scrutinize the cost of the program, especially in this economy, but if you look at overall operating expenses for the building, the cost isn’t much at all.” He also believes that the 360 designation will be a great marketing tool. “We’re also starting to use the designation for marketing purposes for new business. We’re letting prospective tenants know what the designation means and how that translates to a value-add for them. BOMA International has some great marketing materials to help in that effort as well.”
Learn more about the BOMA 360 Performance Program.