Exploring the Modern Tenant Experience

The Evolving Community Manager Role and How They are Welcoming Tenants Back to the Office

By: Jennifer (Ortiz) Fierro, Zeller

In property management, there are specific scenarios one can prepare for. Yearly fire drills are performed, preventative maintenance for the building is completed, and quarterly life safety meetings are held. In addition, standard operating procedures are in place with action to take in case of an emergency. However, a worldwide pandemic is something no one anticipates. While the world was focused on direction from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), tenants quickly lean to property management teams for support in navigating this “new normal”.

COMMUNICATION IS KEY

We hear that ‘Communication is key in all relationships.’ In the landlord and tenant relationship, that also applies. As information from WHO and the CDC was continuously changing, property teams would have to quickly adjust cleaning protocol and building policies. Informing tenants as soon as possible about any building-related information updates was essential to stay ahead of all potential concern’s tenants may have.

With everyone working from home, constant communication became necessary. Most tenants were coming into the office on a rotating schedule. Discovering an efficient process to communicate information with more than just the primary office contacts became a new assignment for on-site teams.

Tashe Woods, Community Engagement Manager with Cousins Properties, said “Tenant communication plays the largest role in my daily responsibilities. -- We believe that consistent and clear communication is the key to building relationships at our properties. We use our customer app to communicate construction updates, building events, neighborhood news, property announcements, restaurant & retail advertisements, COVID-19 changes, amenities updates, and more.”

The frequency and method by which the information was distributed changed dependent on the information shared. We always wanted to make sure tenants were comfortable and aware of what was happening at the office building, even if they were not physically present.

Surveys were an essential tool when addressing tenant concerns. This involved taking a list of possible most common questions or concerns and outlining them in a survey to better understand a tenant’s level of comfort, needs, and intentions to return to the office. Surveys allowed the property management team to prepare well ahead for tenants’ return. Surveys also gave tenants the opportunity to share their input on the satisfaction of services.

Unexpected Challenges

When shelter in place orders were issued, many questioned what effect this would have on the commercial real estate industry. With employees not coming into the office, what would this mean for the property management team, especially those whose roles focus on tenant services and engagement. How could we continue to provide the same level of service to tenants from a distance?

Community Engagement Manager with Zeller Adriana Bibbs said, “Learning methods to keep social connections ‘alive’ while distancing has been the most challenging task, and re-engaging tenants who have not been in an office setting for a year, has proven to be just as challenging as tenants attempt to reacclimate themselves into their new day-to-day.”

With all the challenges presented, we took this as an opportunity to provide exceptional service to tenants from a distance.

Lack of supplies was an unexpected challenge for many tenants. Stepping up to assist tenants in finding personal protective equipment such as face masks, hand sanitizers, and office desk barriers was one of our top priorities. The best kind of service one can provide to tenants is the type that can be adjusted based on the current challenges. The best solutions to these challenges required the willingness to step outside our comfort zones and find new solutions. The tenant service coordinator role is an outward-facing position of the property management team. It is primarily driven by interaction with tenants and focuses on creating exceptional experiences for employees at work. While there was a decline in day-to-day inquiries and tenant front tasks, the work did not stop.

“While tenants worked from home, we capitalized on the opportunity to complete construction projects, make upgrades to our buildings, and brainstorm innovative value-add programming,” Woods said. “We wanted our tenants to return to a refreshed environment with new amenities, enhanced HVAC, safer co-working spaces, contactless navigation, increased cleaning methods, and unique & safe social engagements.”

A typical day prior to the pandemic would consist of a tenant driving into the parking garage, walking through the building lobby greeted by the security team, and walking fast to catch the next elevator. Lunchtime rolls around, and they head to the building fitness center for a quick workout and then grab lunch at the café before heading up back upstairs to finish the rest of their workday. All of these are building services provided to a tenant daily. How can we continue to offer the same services to tenants as they return to office?

Services have also expanded, and many tenant service coordinators are beginning to fulfill new roles to ensure a positive tenant experience.

“Our tenant service coordinator position has gotten more creative in order to stay in front of the tenants,” Anita Scarborough with Lincoln Property Company said. “One of the services we provide to the tenants is notarizing documents. I am a notary, but since I am often at different sites, the TSC recently got his notary so he could fill that duty when I am not in the office.”

Tenant needs have not changed, they have just evolved. As tenants begin to return to their spaces, they know they will not be walking into the same building they left 16 months ago. It has become a mission to find solutions that allow tenants to return to a building operating as prior, but still addressing their new concerns. Researching new cleaning policies, new technology for amenity centers, and staying up to date with CDC recommendations have been the most significant changes in tenant service roles. Scarborough said this adaptive training is imperative to ensuring proper communication and a safe return to office.

“Adapting, adapting, adapting. Our role changes constantly and no two days are ever the same. Providing trained and responsive staff to respond to tenants comfort and needs timely is our ultimate goal,” Scarborough said.

Return to Work

Many tenants expressed similar concerns at the start of the pandemic: “Is the building remaining open?” “What are some of the precautions we are taking to ensure tenants are safe?” As tenants prepare to return to the office, Woods said they were often asked what they were doing to make the building safe for return. This is the number one question many in the CRE industry have received.

Virtual town hall meetings for tenants are a great way to connect with tenants and further understand their return to office plans, schedules, and objectives. It gives the property management teams a chance to answer just ‘what is being done to make the building safe for return.’ As tenants return to the office, we are treating it as a new tenant moving in, welcoming them to the building. Having a standard return to office handbook with common questions or concerns regarding building hours, cleaning procedures, air filtration, amenity updates, and updated forms can help for a smooth transition. The town hall meeting is also a perfect opportunity to roll out any new building policies and remind tenants of the building procedures in place.

“Whether it is an odd smell and a sighting of ants, I find that addressing a concern quickly, and in person, when possible, the landlord/tenant relationships grows. The tenants know we care, and we will do what is needed to find a resolution,” Scarborough said.

With preparing for tenants to return to work, it is important to communicate that the property team is keeping their main question in mind.

“Our tenants can comfortably return to the office knowing that we have increased our disinfecting/air quality & standard cleaning protocols, configured common workspaces to allow for social distancing, and follow the latest CDC guidelines for commercial offices.” Woods said.

As most people have been working from the comfort of their own home the past year and a half, enjoying commute-free mornings and the flexibility to work from pretty much anywhere, shifting employees back into the office has become a top priority for employers. It has proven to be a challenging task. Especially for tenants who are still allowing employees to come voluntarily. How do we make employees want to come into the office? By addressing tenants’ comfort, incentives and providing services that a tenant cannot receive at home.

Woods mentions her building uses a tenant app to inform tenants on building improvements and information on partnerships such as Copiana and Bee Downtown to launch sustainable, outdoor team-building activations, enticing them to return to the office for social connections.

“The efforts being made to excite tenants’ return to office have been challenging. As we navigate through the ‘new normal,’ many tenants are attempting to return to work with a completely new mindset and work environment,” Bibbs said. “Although incentives help to ease the worry of returning to office, reengaging tenants’ employees include planning events that cater to re-socializing employees and allowing them to experience life outside of the office.”

What is the future of any Tenant Service Role?

The pandemic showed just how essential the landlord and tenant relationship are. Tenant service coordinators, community engagement managers, and building concierges are primary roles in enhancing daily tenant experiences. Making the office appealing to employees is becoming a motivator when decision-makers are choosing a location to office out of. As the commercial real estate industry is focused on engaging tenants to return to the office, there could be an increase in demand for tenant service-focused roles for property management teams.

About the Author

Jennifer (Ortiz) Fierro has been a Tenant Service Coordinator for Zeller for 2 years. She began her career in real estate six years ago in residential real estate management. She transitioned into commercial real estate in 2019. She has been and member of BOMA Georgia for the last year and half.

Bringing Technology to the Tenant Experience

The CODA Building

World’s largest spiral staircase at the CODA building. Photo Credit :Portman Management

By: Jacob Ruppel, Portman Management

When it comes to the topic of tenant experience, CODA is doing something a little different. John Portman Jr. believed in the ideas of collaboration and innovation. John Portman and Associates designed a building based solely on those two principles. The roughly 700,000 sq ft. office building located at 756 West Peachtree St. brings something to our tenants they have never seen before. Our collaborative core is 17 floors of common area connected by a stunning continuous spiral staircase which tenants can travel from floor to floor. Broken into six different “neighborhoods,” the core offers unique and vibrant spaces to work, play, or relax. Our customers have taken exceedingly well to this space.

Portman wanted to forge an environment to inspire creativity through collaboration. This collaboration happens when all parties can openly share ideas, which happens best when everyone is relaxed. We designed spaces where the comforts of home are here in the workplace. We made it a more natural habitat for our tenants in every way possible, understanding that everyone is different. The various types of work/ break areas mirror our uniqueness and allow everyone to find their home in space in CODA.

You can see on a walk through of CODA tenants are gathered around a whiteboard to solve X in an equation filling the entire board. On another floor, a group of co-workers breaking bread with members from another company, all enjoying a bite from one of our restaurants in the Collective Food Hall. And still, on another floor, you can find your solo habitants taking a minute to get away from it all and take in the incredible view of Georgia Tech Campus from 20 stories above street level.

Scenes such as exciting, dynamic spaces (the swings on the 9th floor) and inviting niches (the banquet cubes on the 12th floor) create this nurturing environment for people to come together. The second principle is innovation. We wanted to do something that has never been done before and encourages others to do the same. Since the beginning, Portman held conversations with our anchor tenant, Georgia Institute of Technology, about energy efficiency in an office building. The bridging of a tech-forward clientele and a Platinum energy-rated office building began to emerge. With the combination of new, state-of-the-art technology and time-tested energy practices, Portman created a one-of-a-kind building that can finally provide the data necessary for our tenants to push forward into the ever-growing effort to save energy.

The idea was a single pane of glass. We desired more intelligent control and management over our assets and facilities, but we wanted to do this through one platform. This approach is where the Hepta team and their EntroCim product came into play. We applied the same principles they created for data centers around the country. Hepta created a first-of-its-kind software solution providing facility stakeholders with all the information they need to ensure the safe, optimized operation of the most critical aspects of our property. EntroCim is not new technology, and Hepta has been growing it for a while now. We use this analytical platform to control our building systems and provide a customer portal where the building tenants can see energy consumption and building operations. This technology provided what CODA needed for the relationship and insight our tenants wanted. They can view space conditions and complex equipment operations for research purposes.

Chilled beams and hydronic heating and cooling are some of the timetested technologies used in the CODA building and are still considered one of the most efficient and consistent ways of controlling space temp. Sensors and pump modules (a package consisting of a pump, a VFD, and an actuating valve package) are used to sample and measure tenant areas then fed into the algorithm that decides what temperature water is required to heat or cool. Pack this technology in with the two heat recovery Chillers, which recover energy from the condenser to heat the building and, the 4 DOAS (dedicated outside air systems) that provide 100% fresh and conditioned outside air while also recovering heat from the building; CODA delivers a safer and more comfortable environment to our customers.

CODA provides several sources of green energy to our customers, as well. We use reclamation heat from DataBank (the 80,000 square feet of high-performance computing space/data center) and a groundwater/ rainwater reclamation system providing water to our landscaping and cooling towers. ViewGlass’s self-tinting windows run throughout the core to minimize the solar load on the building, leading to better efficiency. We also decreased our elevator footprint by 25% while maintaining the same conveyance capacity and transporting 40% more passengers. Less elevator space equals more leasable space for tenants. We utilize the nation’s first TWIN passenger elevator system with two independent cars, one on top of the other, in one shaft. It also lets you introduce brand-new traffic concepts while setting a new standard in high performance.

Our tenants can feel cozy and contented, allowing them to worry less and innovate more. This new take on an office building stirs the creative juices in our cohabitants and drives for prosperous effects in work and wellbeing. And when all that brainpower needs refueling, CODA has that covered as well.

Our chef-driven food hall, the Collective, is open to the public and quells even the pickiest of appetites! Your options span from Aviva’s homemade Mediterranean cuisine to Poke Burri’s inventive sushi, and Burro Pollo’s ceviches and cervezas to SmoQue Burger’s BBQ-inspired patties. Live Wire Coffee is there with a quick yet custom-made boost for a morning jump-start or the afternoon pick me up with caffeine or cake. When it is quiting’ time, grab a crafted cocktail coupled with a science experiment at By Weight and Measure, the new techniquedriven cocktail bar in Atlanta. You can also wind down on Fridays with live music in the plaza and movie nights on the roof during the warmer seasons. The Portman team strives to facilitate the best workspace in Atlanta. We hone our exceptional standards in service, making use of the technologically advanced Class T building and the home-feel environment to provide the best customer experience. The key to the future of tenant experiences is resilience and flexibility while maintaining the successful mantra of tenant-first. Here at CODA, we are on the first line in the new age of the workplace, leading the way to healthier and happier tenants.

About the Author

Jacob Ruppel is the Assistant Chief Engineer for Portman Management Group in the CODA Tech Building. He has been with CODA from construction. He has been in the industry for close to eight years, working with Fifth Street, Regent Partners, and Cousins Properties. Ruppel is an Atlanta native and live in Marietta with his wife, and just gave birth to his first child. He enjoys music, cooking, carpentry, and the outdoors.

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