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Complete Building Services A NATIONAL TREASURE
Since 1884, this Washington D.C. firm has worked to maintain and service over 30 million sq. ft. of commercial, institutional, government, embassy and multi-family buildings, keeping our nation’s capital running smoothly.
northeast
2 Winter 2010
| general contracting
general contracting
| northeast
Keeping it by Joel Cornell
Throughout the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, including most parts of Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia, Complete Building Services has been providing the highest quality of building operations and maintenance services for nearly half a century. As an associated business partner and child of The Donohoe Companies, Inc., the oldest and largest full service real estate organization in the Washington DC area, Complete Building Services maintains and services over 30 million sq. ft. of commercial, institutional, government, embassy and multi-family buildings. In 1884, The Donohoe Companies, Inc. was founded by John F. Donohoe as a small real estate business connecting residential buyers and sellers on Capitol Hill. As the range of The Donohoe Companies, Inc. expanded to include a construction company and a development company, before becoming an entirely full service real estate company, Complete Building Services became a part of the equation in 1963. The division was founded in response to a growing need for building engineers and maintenance professionals dedicated to building operation, maintenance and repair. The Donohoe Companies, Inc. has developed and built billions of dollars of Washington’s premier office, hotel, retail, industrial and residential projects. Their work includes hospital, university and government facilities, schools, embassies and landmark mixed-use developments. Today, guided by a fourth generation of the Donohoe family, The Donohoe Companies, Inc. has continued to grow and expand by offering new solutions for the entire continuum of the area’s building and real estate needs. Since their inception, Complete Building Services has lived by their mission statement as follows: “At Complete Building Services, we are committed to building strong business relationships by providing quality service to our clients, solving their problems quickly and cost-effectively, and maintaining our reputation for fairness and integrity.” The majority of Complete Building Services’ work comes from their Facility Management departments. For both the corporate and government sectors, the company provides a full range of facilities operations and management services to ensure quality, cost effective soluTHIS PAGE: Complete Building Services works with a number of educational institutions, including the famed Smithsonian Institute.
Construction Leaders Today 3
northeast
| general contracting
tions. A vast array of professional management by seasoned, in-house facility managers, project managers, technical management, corporate support and administrative staff assures the company’s clients that their facilities management needs are met. Through their long lasting relationships with vendors, clients and specialists, Complete Building Services has grown by leaps and bounds, despite recessions, depressions and everything in between. Their pledge to each and every client, size and rank notwithstanding, includes a comprehensive suite of services offered at any time throughout the year, day or night or rain or shine. In the middle of the night, an accident knocked out several power lines and all electricity for several offices, restaurants, retail stores and a hotel in Tysons Corner, one of Northern Virginia’s most densely populated residential and commercial areas. The opportunity for thousands of dollars in revenue to be entirely lost due to the outage was beyond imminent. Fortunately for the hotel, they were clients of Complete Building Services. Complete Building Services’ on-site Chief Engineer quickly activated the emergency response plan, notifying the appropriate personnel. The electrical systems installer diagnosed the problem – the transformer was shorted. Wiring to the transformer was disconnected in preparation for a temporary hook up of an emergency generator to power the building until a replacement transformer could be 4 Winter 2010
located and installed. The electrical installation contractor could not locate an emergency generator, so Complete Building Services contacted local generator supply companies to find and deliver the proper generator in the middle of the night. The company’s good relationship with suppliers, together with the hard work and quick thinking of the chief engineer, was able to minimize guest inconvenience, keep the guest reservation system operating, and diminish hotel revenue loss. According to the General Manager of the hotel, Complete Building Services saved them nearly $20,000 in room revenue alone. The total scope of services provided by Complete Building Services extends much further than preventative maintenance and quality control, however. The company is a nationwide leader in the design, implementation and development of Building Automation Technology. The functionality of their custom building automation systems does indeed reach deeply into security, climate and lighting controls for total tenant satisfaction. But this is just the surface. In their automated security systems alone, comprehensive custom suites extend to include CCTV, digital video management, badge / access card I.D. systems, lighting control, elevator control, motion detection systems, parking lot control, building access control and life safety monitoring systems. Any building owner or tenant can access and manage their security systems remotely via any web access point.
These capabilities also include viewing live and recorded video, securing and opening doors, granting access during emergencies and simply updating standard access. Most importantly, clients can take immediate action to solve problems, anytime, anywhere. The HVAC automation systems are more flexible and responsive than traditional systems. For their clients, the solution means systems interoperability, better energy management, lower operating costs, increased productivity and fewer headaches. Their systems can better customize the tenant experience, adapt to changing space uses and can be easily upgraded to drive leasing activity. Their team works with clients to design a system based on their specific needs to increase tenant satisfaction and reduce operating expenses. All of this control and monitoring can be done on-site or on the Internet. These measures, especially when integrated into sustainable and efficient energy systems, can result in a system that will pay for itself in an incredibly short amount of time. As a solitary entity, Complete Building Services is the premier provider of installation, management and automation services in and around our nation’s capitol. As a division of the highly esteemed Donohoe Companies, they are ideally poised to ensure that any tenant, any owner, any person who inhabits a building covered by Complete Building services will be privy to the most efficient, comprehensive and reliable system of building services available. CLT
general contracting
| northeast
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THIS PAGE: (TOP) Complete Building Services does facility maintenance for the United States government, including the National World War II monument in Washington D.C. (BOTTOM) CBS came to the rescue for a hotel in Tysons Corner, Va., one of Northern Virginia's most populated areas. The company's quick response to a power outage, which supplied electricity to several offices, restaurants, retail stores and the hotel, could have cost all parties tens of thousands of dollars in revenue. Luckily, CBS was able to identify and correct the issue in the middle of the night.
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