You’re worried about the daycare, your chair is uncomfortable and you don’t know how to get rid of the old filing cabinet.
Your office might need a facility manager.
In an age when organizations are changing, facilities managers help them work, says Bill Duffett, public relations chairman for the Calgary chapter of the International Facility Management Association.
Duffett is facilities management director for the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.
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| Shannon Oatway, Business Edge |
| Alynn Hunter and Bill Duffett say issues around facilities management can be among top corporate expenses. |
He contends that the right facility can bring a 15- to 20-per-cent increase in productivity.
There are occupational health and safety considerations in facility management as well, adds Duffett.
Alynn Hunter, president of the Calgary chapter, says it’s about customer focus. “If you deal with the day care . . . cafeteria and so on, people can stop worrying about them and be productive,” she says.
Issues affected by facility management can be one of the top corporate expenses, adds Hunter.
Duffett notes that at his last job, so many issues at regular plant meetings were facility management concerns that he set up a help line to deal with them.
IFMA defines facility management as co-ordinating the physical workplace with the people and work of the organization, integrating principles of business administration, architecture, engineering and behavioural sciences.
The organization has identified eight competencies in the field, says Hunter.
Issues include how workplaces can digest and work with new technologies, and how to work with IT departments.
Hunter, who has her own consulting business, says Calgary companies have been slow to take up new technologies internally.
“All these cables and wires are a monkey on our back,” says Hunter, who has become an enthusiast for wireless.
IFMA has chapters in 165 countries. The local branch has about 170 members. Its offerings include virtual membership for isolated individuals and training courses, some of which are available online.
Office leasing activity chopped 1.5 percentage points off the downtown vacancy rate in the first quarter, says a report from a major real estate brokerage.
CB Richard Ellis Alberta Ltd. says that 472,000 sq. ft. of net absorption occurred in the downtown office market in the first quarter of 2001. The vacancy rate fell to 10 per cent from 11.5 per cent in the last quarter of 2000.
CB Richard Ellis said it expects downtown office demand to stay strong for at least six months and the vacancy rate to fall to below eight per cent by year end.
Net absorption is calculated by subtracting the occupied area of the previous period from the current period.
Most of the demand came from expansion in the energy industry and almost all of the absorption was in Class AA and Class A space, says CB Richard Ellis. Absorption was 192,796 sq. ft. in Class AA and 208,733 in Class A. The Class AA vacancy rate fell to 9.9 per cent from 13.1 per cent and the Class A rate to 9.3 per cent from 11.3 per cent.
In contrast, absorption in Class B was 32,516 sq. ft. and the vacancy rate fell to 8.2 per cent from 8.7 per cent. Absorption in Class C was 39,860 sq. ft. and the vacancy rate rose to 15 per cent from 14.8 per cent.
Edmonton had the fifth highest downtown absorption in the country, with 68,700 sq. ft.
Calgary and Edmonton led the country in suburban office absorption, at just under 130,000 sq. ft. and 121,500 sq. ft. respectively.
The sale of the TELUS office tower downtown will be final at the end of April. Telus will then lease the building from its new owner.
The western-based telecommunications giant has raised $325 million for investment. In addition to the Calgary building at 411 1st St. S.E., Telus sold its Burnaby, B.C., headquarters, two Edmonton office towers and a three-storey Telus Mobility building in Calgary.
The company said in a recent statement that the sales provide capital for its growth strategy.
Telus trades on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges. It closed Friday up 90 cents at $34.35 in Toronto.
Royal Host Real Estate Investment Trust has closed its issue of 3.39 million trust units at $5.90 per unit. Gross proceeds were just over $20 million, the company said in a news release. The offering was made through a syndicate of underwriters led by BMO Nesbitt Burns.
Royal Host owns 36 hotels, manages 77 properties and franchises 91 locations. It also owns the Travelodge master franchise for Canada.
A Calgary development company has moved into the U.S., buying an interest in a Colorado mall. TGS Properties Ltd., through its American subsidiary, bought a piece of the Silverthorne Mall in Silverthorne, Colo., about 100 kilometres west of Denver on the interstate highway to the Vail, Breckenridge and Keystone resort areas.
TGS bought the mall together with Former TCE LLC of Colorado. TGS owns 60 per cent of the venture. TGS Properties Ltd. trades on the Toronto market, where it closed Friday unchanged at $1.25.
Buildex Edmonton will run April 24 and 25 at the Shaw Conference Centre in the provincial capital.
The conference and trade show is aimed at real estate, property management and related industries.
More than 100 companies are expected to exhibit products and services.
