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Chris Puplett: Tips for success from TOP Building Manager of the Year
This month Resort News caught up with Chris Puplett, who took out the Building Manager of the Year title at ARAMA’s prestigious TOP Awards in July and says there is no mystery to his success.
“To be honest it just comes down to treating people how you want to be treated,” said Chris, a Senior Facilities Manager at Oaks Hotels, Resorts & Suites.
“It’s about being decent and polite and working hard to help others. It’s very rewarding when people see the work you’re doing and appreciate it. Having good bodies corporate behind you is so important too.
“I was thrilled at winning a TOP Award, but it was a real team effort, not just me. It was so good for my company, Oaks, to receive that recognition. It’s all about the support you have around you and I have a great team working with me.”
Chris will notch up 20 years with Oaks next year and says he has a great bond with the company, a loyalty built when his employers were “so supportive” to his family when Chris’s wife Vicki was battling cancer a decade ago.
“Vicki is fully recovered now but it was a tough time for a while and Oaks was great all through that period. Nothing was too much trouble for them, and I feel very loyal to them after so many good years with the company.”
Oaks has eight properties in the Brisbane CBD, as well as one at Bowen Hills, Milton, the Gabba, Ipswich and Redcliffe.
“In all of them,” said Chris, “there’s a mixture of owner occupiers and long-term and short-term rentals.
“At the moment I’m the Senior Facilities Manager for Brisbane but the main buildings I look after are Oaks Brisbane Festival Suites and Oaks Brisbane Charlotte Suites in the CBD, and the Oaks Brisbane Mews Suites in Bowen Hills.
Chris grew up at Zillmere on the north side of Brisbane in a family that loved horses, and he still has a passion for thoroughbreds.
He was a keen concert goer, too, at Brisbane’s premier entertainment venue Festival Hall on which Oaks Brisbane Festival Suites now stands. The property is now a residential building of 401 apartments, of which Oaks manages 140.
A Hall of Fame in the building’s foyer pays tribute to the days when Festival Hall hosted the greatest names in show business from The Beatles to the Bee Gees, Buddy Holly to Led Zeppelin, Queen, Elton John and Tina Turner.
“I went to a lot of concerts there when I was young and you’d come out unable to hear for a few days,” Chris said.
“Paul McCartney is coming to Brisbane in November, and I reckon it would be great if he could make a visit to the Hall of Fame in the foyer of the Towers since he played at Festival Hall almost 60 years ago with the Beatles. It’d probably be a 100 to one shot but you never know.”
Chris started in management rights while working in the construction industry.
“The company I worked for did a big development called Bridgewater at Kangaroo Point and at the end of the job they asked me to look after the property for three or four months during the handover,” he said.
“The company that bought the management rights then asked me to take care of Bridgewater full-time. I had two young kids then and saw it as a good opportunity.
“Bridgewater ended up being taken over by Quest and after nine years there I got transferred to the Quest at North Quay. Oaks bought the management rights for that building and they asked me to stay on, so I did, and that was 19 years ago.
“I’ve been with Oaks ever since and they’ve looked after me very well, especially when Vicki was sick for a couple of years. I feel very loyal to them.”
So, what does Chris say goes into making a good building manager?
“Patience is a big factor,” he says. “Because you are working with such a variety of people: owners, occupiers, investors and tenants, you really have to be patient and honest and as fair as possible with everyone involved. And whatever the situation you want to help as much as you can. It’s a residential building so if everyone gets along it’s a much better outcome for everybody.”
His patience has been tested over the last 12 years, though.
“There have been challenging times,” he says, “The floods of 2011 and 2013 were tough. In 2011, Oaks Brisbane Festival Suites and Oaks Brisbane on Margaret Suites were our big buildings then. At Oaks Brisbane Festival Suites, we lost our lifts that go to 41 floors and we had to work hard to make sure the people on the high floors had everything they needed. We had to get the lifts running as quickly as we could. We had great contractors and I have to give Otis credit because after all the water was extracted we had the lifts running again in 11 days.
“One of the most important things to be a good manager is to have those relationships with contractors and suppliers who can help get things done quickly.”
Chris says he has been using MYBOS for the last two years and that it has been invaluable, especially at Oaks Brisbane Mews Suites and Oaks Brisbane Festival Suites where so many fittings have had to be replaced.
“It’s vital to have the history of the building, repairs and maintenance all recorded,” he said.
“With MYBOS you can schedule all the maintenance and the body corporate can access the files too and that saves a lot of explanation at meetings because it’s all written down.”
He predicts the business of management rights will only get bigger, despite the speculation about cutting terms and other threatened changes.
“It’s a growing industry and it is only going to get bigger and better,” Chris said. “People are struggling to find a place to live now and the more high-rise buildings and residential complexes that are built the better. All the new buildings will need someone to manage them.”
Chris and Vicki have two grown daughters, Caitlin now 29, and Meg 27.
He has had a lifelong passion for horseracing, though some horses are faster than others.
“I’ve had a few little shares in horses over the years and one at the moment which is doing pretty well,” he said.
“I love going to the races and I’ve had a couple of good wins at the track. I love going to the beach as well and one day I’ll happily retire down to the Gold Coast.”
A colleague who nominated Chris for the Building Manager of the Year Award said that during a challenging year of flood recovery, Chris “once again showed his dedication and work ethic not only to the various body corporate committees but also to the various building managers who relied heavily on Chris’s support during this time”.
The TOP Award judge said that one aspect of Chris’ outstanding work was his 19 years of experience and the wide range of buildings that he has managed and is now currently responsible for.
“The last few years have posed a difficult time for the management rights industry,” the judge said, “with COVID, a shortage of tradespeople and materials, and shortages of staff and weather conditions in many areas resulting in flooding that has put more pressure on building managers. However, this year’s winner has shown how experience and skills can rise above adversity.”
Chris was also praised for bringing in new systems “to more efficiently manage and maintain the complexes”. This greater efficiency led to a reduction in manning levels and freed up staff to be utilised in other areas.
“All of this leads to reduced costs for the body corporate - a win-win for all,” the judge said. ■
