Best Practices for Building Operations During the COVID-19 Outbreak

Introduction

COVID-19 presents an unprecedented and difficult situation for people across the world, the effects of which will be felt in every corner of the economy. Obviously, commercial real estate will play a significant role for a population in quarantine.

The industry’s response has been swift and decisive, focusing intently on tenant and staff safety by implementing stringent cleaning protocols in public areas and amenity spaces, reducing the flow of outsiders into the building, and providing clear communications about measures that individuals can take.

However, as the situation continues and worsens, owners and operators will have to significantly modify their daily operations to make up for the lack of available labor and the changes to tenant occupancy and behaviors.

In the small window that owners and operators have to make preparations, what best practices are being implemented to make building operations as resilient as possible? What can be learned from this difficult situation that can be applied in the future?

Multifamily

With the majority of the population staying at home instead of going to work each day, multifamily operators can expect a greater strain on their building systems.

This is only compounded by the fact that many properties are cutting back on staff due to the difficulty of traveling and risk of exposure.

In the short amount of time available, there are several things that multifamily owners and operators can do to ensure they have the best chance at preserving operational continuity:

• Identify essential building functions for limited staff to focus on
• Document processes, especially those performed by outside vendors who may not be able to access the building
• Order redundant critical parts in case supplies become unavailable
• Stagger shifts to decrease likelihood of staff-wide infection
• Cross-train personnel to perform essential building functions so that operations can continue if key staff members are absent

Despite the difficulty and available lack of time, these procedures can make a big difference in the coming weeks or months.

There may also be a small silver lining from an operational perspective. Despite having many more tenants in the building during the day, it’s likely that the flexibility of working from home will help to more evenly distribute tenant schedules so that there aren’t demand spikes for systems such as hot water. This should be watched closely by operators and communicated to tenants if necessary.

Office & Hospitality

Office and hotel properties will have equal but opposite challenges as multifamily assets. Major cities around the country are issuing strict guidelines for office tenants to remain at home during the day and most office buildings are reporting a tiny fraction of their usual occupancy counts. Likewise, travel has all but come to a halt, decimating the demand for hotel rooms.

In preparation, offices and hotels should reduce or even eliminate the operations of most building systems. Sophisticated landlords are moving swiftly to prepare for a lengthy period of reduced system functions:

• Completing all preventative maintenance scheduled through the summer
• Considering locking out chilled water and steam connections, and draining cooling towers
• Having operators available in shifts to manage a portfolio dynamically where needs appear instead of having full-time in-house staff

Again, these are difficult things to achieve while also “putting out fires” across the portfolio, but they will position the property to operate with reduced staff and will help ensure that changes in occupancy don’t come with massive waste in operating expenses.

One small benefit may be that work that would normally be disruptive to tenants can be completed during this period. This includes electrical work that requires power shutdowns and the installation of additional sensor technology.

Technology’s Role to Play

Speaking of technology, what broader lessons can be learned during these challenging times? As owners and operators forge ahead with skeleton crews, it may be a chance to take stock of how operations would look if top engineers retired without replacements readily available.

One of technology’s primary benefits is to increase productivity, which will be of critical importance during this period and in the future.

As such, there are a few technologies that can be deployed today to help ease the burden during this crisis:

• Mobile apps that can be downloaded directly to allow on-site staff to perform functions usually completed by third party vendors, such as maintenance rounds or meter readings
• Installing simple devices to connect the building management system (BMS) to the cloud so engineers can access building systems remotely

In the long term, once the crisis has passed. This experience may move the industry to search for ways in which technology can make their operations more resilient. Some technologies are already helping early adopters navigate this difficult time:

• Digitizing documents and processes to make available from anywhere
• Virtual scans of mechanical rooms to enable remote guidance through a building
• Installation of sensors to take continuous readings instead of relying on a human to perform rounds

Obviously, there is still a lot of uncertainty about what the future may hold and how long the quarantines will last. But by following the best practices of leading owners and operators, the entire industry can build resilience into their processes and building operations today and in the future.

Enertiv is here to help. If you are a commercial real estate owner or operator who needs assistance, feel free to contact us for advice, regardless of if you are a client or not.